Using the stationary formulation of the toroidally compactified heterotic
string theory in terms of a pair of matrix Ernst potentials we consider the
four-dimensional truncation of this theory with no U(1) vector fields excited.
Imposing one time-like Killing vector permits us to express the stationary
effective action as a model in which gravity is coupled to a matrix Ernst
potential which, under certain parametrization, allows us to interpret the
matter sector of this theory as a double Ernst system. We generate a web of
string vacua which are related to each other via a set of discrete symmetries
of the effective action (some of them involve S-duality transformations and
possess non-perturbative character). Some physical implications of these
discrete symmetries are analyzed and we find that, in some particular cases,
they relate rotating black holes coupled to a dilaton with no Kalb--Ramond
field, static black holes with non-trivial dilaton and antisymmetric tensor
fields, and rotating and static naked singularities. Further, by applying a
nonlinear symmetry, namely, the so-called normalized Harrison transformation,
on the seed field configurations corresponding to these neutral backgrounds, we
recover the U(1)^n Abelian vector sector of the four-dimensional action of the
heterotic string, charging in this way the double Ernst system which
corresponds to each one of the neutral string vacua, i.e., the stationary and
the static black holes and the naked singularities.Comment: 19 pages in latex, added referenc