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Acuario Nacional
A Habana institution founded in 1960, the aquarium gets legions of annual visitors, particularly since its 2002 revamp. Environmentally speaking, the place leaves all other Cuban aquariums in the shade (although that isn't saying much). For a start, it's designed to be both educational and conservationist. Saltwater fish are the specialty, but there are also sea lions, dolphins and lots of running-around room for kids.
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Aquarium
This small freshwater aquarium in a tasteful old building in Habana Vieja contains eight tanks and a varied collection of fish from around the world; it's great for the kids.
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Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba
The museum in this center provides an overview of the Santería religion and the saints' powers, with 30-plus terracotta statues of the most important orishas (deities), including Changó, god of war and Yemayá, goddess of the sea. There are free tambores (drum-jams-cum-ceremonies) on alternate Fridays at (when you can check out the museum for free), and you can also arrange consultations with a santero (Santería high priest).
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Bust Of Ernest Hemingway
Next to the Torreón de Cojímar and framed by a neoclassical archway is a gilded bust of Ernest Hemingway erected by the residents of Cojímar in 1962. Hemingway came here regularly in the 1940s and 50s and moored his boat in the nearby harbor. His friend and sea captain, Gregorio Fuentes, lived in the green-and-white house at Calle 98 until 2002, when he died aged 101.
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Cámara Oscura
Situated on the northwest corner of Plaza Vieja in the eye-catching Gómez Vila building, this fun old-town diversion provides 360-degree views of the city from a telescopic lens atop a 35m-tall tower. Sheets flap in the breeze, old cars amble by and the docent does an admirable job explaining Habana's architectural highlights in Spanish and English during a 10-minute 'virtual' tour.
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Capitolio Nacional
Habana's most grandiose building, the Capitolio is similar to the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC, but taller and much richer in detail. It was initiated by Cuba's US-backed dictator Gerardo Machado in 1926 and took 5000 workers three years, two months and 20 days to build at a cost of around US$17 million. Once the seat of the Cuban Congress, it now houses the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the National Library of Science & Technology.
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Casa de África
This is a small museum that houses artifacts presented to Fidel Castro during his 1977 Africa tour. Objects from no fewer than 26 countries are presented here. Also on display are objects relating to the Afro-Cuban religion Santería, which were formerly in the collection of celebrated Cuban ethnographer Fernando Ortíz.
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Casa De Asia
Sometimes known as the Museo de Asia, or the Museo de Arte del Lejano Oriente, this quirky cultural house exhibits painting and sculpture from Asia, with a special focus on China and Japan. The building dates from 1688, and the museum opened in 1997.
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Casa De La Obra Pía
This typical Habana aristocratic residence was originally built in 1665, and was rebuilt in 1780, soon after the British occupation. Baroque decoration - including an intricate portico, which was made in Cádiz, Spain - covers the exterior facade, and at 1480 sq m this grandiose home was the largest in the neighborhood at the time it was erected.
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Casa De Las Américas
This cathedral-like Art Deco structure just off the Malecón is a major cultural institution set up by Haydee Santamaría in 1959 to sponsor literary and artistic seminars, conferences and musical events. It's also home to one of Cuba's largest publishing houses. Inside there's a small bookstore, as well as an art gallery and library.
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Casa De Lombillo
This resplendent casa (house) is one of Habana's oldest, dating from 1741. Named after one of its 18th-century owners, the count of Lombillo, who made his fortune in the slave trade, the building is most notable for its exquisite interior balconies and stately Tuscan-style columns. During the mid-19th century the palace served as Habana's main (and first) post office, and a stone-mask mailbox in one of the outside walls is still in use.
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Casa de los Condes de Jaruco
With its wide covered gallery, this house is said to be typical of aristocratic residences built around 1737. Although named after the counts of Jaruco, the house's most famous resident was María Mercedes de Santa Cruz y Cárdenas, a famous countess of Merlín, who was born in the mansion and went on to become one of the city's early literary greats. Today the building houses La Casona Centro de Arte.
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Casa de México Benito Juárez
Named after Mexico's long-serving indigenous president and hero, the Casa de Benito Juárez exhibits Mexican folk art in an 18th-century palace. Strangely enough, there's not a whole lot about Señor Juárez himself at the museum bearing his name.
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Casa Oswaldo Guayasamín
This is the former workshop and home of the notable Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín, who lived in Habana for many years before his death in March 1999. Guayasamín is most famous for various paintings of Fidel produced during the 80s and 90s, but has painted many other Cuban luminaries, including Raúl Castro, Eusebio Leal, Carlos Puebla and Columbian novelist Gabriel García Márquez. Unfortunately you won't find any of these portraits here.
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Castillo de la Real Fuerza
The oldest existing fort in the Americas, the Castillo de Real Fuerza was built between 1558 and 1577 on the site of an earlier fort destroyed by French privateers in 1555. Imposing and indomitable, the castle is ringed by an impressive moat and its walls, like those of other forts facing the Caribbean, are made from blocks of coral. Today, it shelters the Museo de la Cerámica Artística Cubana, along with a bar, snack stand and souvenir shop.
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Castillo De Los Tres Santos Reyes Magnos Del Morro
This imposing castle was built between 1589 and 1630 to protect Habana harbor from pirates such as Frenchman Jacques de Sores, who sacked the city in 1555. Perched on a rocky bluff above the Atlantic, the fort - with its irregular polygon shape, thick walls and deep protective moat - is a classic example of Renaissance military architecture. The famous lighthouse - which has made the castle one of Habana's signature sights - was added in 1844.
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Castillo De San Salvador De La Punta
Designed by Italian engineer Giovanni Bautista Antonelli and built between 1589 and 1600, this fort is a fine example of 16th-century Renaissance military architecture. In days of yore, a chain was stretched 250m across the channel to El Morro castle every night to close the harbor mouth to shipping. The castle's museum displays artifacts from sunken Spanish treasure fleets, a collection of model ships and information on the slave trade.
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Castillo Del Príncipe
The Castillo del Principe (1767-79) is an irregularly shaped fortress constructed to protect nearby valleys. It is said to contain moats, underground passageways, vaulted galleries, cisterns and all sorts of other intriguing stuff, but today it serves as a police headquarters and is off-limits to tourists.
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Catedral de San Cristóbal de la Habana
Dominated by two unequal towers and framed by a theatrical baroque facade designed in the style of Italian architect Francesco Borromini, Habana's graceful Catedral de San Cristóbal was once described by Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier as 'music set in stone'.
Pope John Paul II said one of his four Cuban Masses at the cathedral in January 1998 during a groundbreaking papal tour of the island.
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Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau
A leading cultural institution that was formed under the auspices of the Unión Nacional des Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (Uneac; National Union of Cuban Writers & Artists) in 1996, this center hosts a variety of expositions of substance, including poetry readings and a live acoustic music series called Guitarra Limpia. Its Salón de Arte Digital is renowned for its groundbreaking digital art.
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Centro de Ingenería Genética y Biotecnología
The ultramodern Centro de Ingenería Genética y Biotecnología is the focus of Cuba's genetic engineering and biotechnology research. Cuba first became involved in biotechnology in 1981, and this center opened in 1986 after an initial investment of around US$140 million. Since then, the 400 Cuban scientists employed in this enormous complex have developed a number of unique methods of medical treatment and several new vaccines.
Read more about Centro de Ingenería Genética y Biotecnología
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Centro Gallego
It might look baroque, but the Centro Gallego, erected as a Galician social club in 1914, is a relatively modern 20th-century creation. The center, which contains myriad arcades, columns, balconies and sculptures, was built around the 1838 Teatro Tacón. This history is the basis of claims by the present 2000-seat Gran Teatro de la Habana that it's the oldest operating theater in the Western Hemisphere.
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Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas
The Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas is where the anticholesterol wonder drug Ateromixol, or PPG, was created. This remarkable work has been conducted without foreign assistance, and it possibly holds the key to a world-class pharmaceutical industry of the future. Visits can be made by prior arrangement.
Read more about Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas
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Centro Wilfredo Lam
This exhibition center is named after Cuba's most famous painter, though these days it is more likely to display works by lesser-known Latin artists. A Cuban of Chinese and African ancestry, Lam (1902-1982) was strongly influenced by Pablo Picasso, whom he met in Paris in 1936 and under whom he studied for a brief period. Much of the artist's best work can be viewed today at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.
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Club Habana
This fabulously eclectic mansion dating from 1928 once housed the Havana Biltmore Yacht & Country Club. In the 1950s it gained brief notoriety when it famously denied entry to Cuban president Fulgencio Batista on the grounds that he was 'Black' (he was in fact of mixed background). Castro had better luck when he dropped by for dinner some 30 years later and the club remains one of the few places where he has dined in public.
