Sights in Havana
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Club Habana
This fabulously eclectic mansion in Flores dating from 1928 once housed the Havana Biltmore Yacht & Country Club. In the 1950s the establishment gained brief notoriety when it famously denied entry to Cuban president Fulgencio Batista on the grounds that he was ‘black’ (Batista was in fact of mixed blood with a black mother and a part-Chinese father). 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. These days the history of the establishment seems to have swung full circle and it is again a popular hangout for foreign correspondents and diplomats. The club has its own beach, …
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Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás
One of Havana’s oldest and most famous cigar factories, the landmark neoclassical Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás was founded in 1845 by a Spaniard named Jaime Partagás. Today some 400 workers toil for up to 12 hours a day in here rolling such famous cigars as Montecristos and Cohibas. As far as tours go, Partagás is the most popular and reliable factory to visit. Tour groups check out the ground floor first, where the leaves are unbundled and sorted, before proceeding to the upper floors to watch the tobacco get rolled, pressed, adorned with a band and boxed. Though interesting in an educational sense, the tours here are often rushed and a little robotic and some vi…
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Parque Almendares
Running along the banks of the Río Almendares below the bridge on Calle 23 (La Rampa), this wonderful oasis of greenery and negative-air ions in the heart of chaotic Habana is sometimes referred to as the lungs of the city. The park was restored in 2003 and a beautiful job has been done: benches line the river promenade, plants grow profusely in the shade and there are many facilities here, including an antiquated miniature golf course, the Anfiteatro Parque Almendares and a children’s playground. There are also several good places to eat. Take a 20-minute stroll through old-growth trees in the Bosque de la Habana and you’ll feel transported (take a friend, though: thi…
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Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña
An 18th-century colossus, the FortalezadeSan Carlosde la Cabaña was built between 1763 and 1774 on a long, exposed ridge on the east side of Havana harbor to fill a weakness in the city’s defenses. In 1762 the British had taken Havana by gaining control of this strategically important ridge and it was from here that they shelled the city mercilessly into submission. In order to prevent a repeat performance, the Spanish King Carlos III ordered the construction of a massive fort that would repel future invaders. Measuring 700m from end to end and covering a whopping 10 hectares, it is the largest Spanish colonial fortress in the Americas.
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Señora Amelia Goyri
After entering the neo-Romanesque northern gateway (1870), there’s the tomb of independence leader General Máximo Gómez (1905) on the right (look for the bronze face in a circular medallion). Further along past the first circle, and also on the right, are the monument to the firefighters (1890) and the neo-Romanesque Capilla Central (1886) in the center of the cemetery. Just northeast of this chapel is the graveyard’s most celebrated (and visited) tomb, that of Señora Amelia Goyri, better known as La Milagrosa (the miraculous one), who died while giving birth on May 3, 1901. The marble figure of a woman with a large cross and a baby in her arms is easy to find, due…
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Universidad de la Habana
Founded by Dominican monks in 1728 and secularized in 1842, Habana University began life in Habana Vieja before moving to its present site in 1902. The existing neoclassical complex dates from the second quarter of the 20th century, and today some 30,000 students (2000 of them foreigners), taught by 1700 professors, follow courses in the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, mathematics and economics here. Perched on a hill at the top of the famous stairway, the university’s central quadrangle, the Plaza Ignacio Agramonte, displays a tank captured by Castro’s rebels in 1958. Directly in front is the biblioteca (library) and to the left the Edificio Felipe Poe…
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Museo de la Revolución
The Museo de la Revolución is housed in the former Presidential Palace, constructed between 1913 and 1920 and used by a string of cash-embezzling Cuban presidents, culminating in Fulgencio Batista. The world-famous Tiffany’s of New York decorated the interior, and the shimmering Salón de los Espejos (Room of Mirrors) was designed to resemble the room of the same name at the Palace of Versailles. In March 1957 the palace was the target of an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Batista led by revolutionary student leader José Antonio Echeverría. The museum itself descends chronologically from the top floor starting with Cuba’s pre-Columbian culture and extending to …
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Parque de la Fraternidad
Parque de la Fraternidad ‘Fraternity Park’ was established in 1892 to commemorate the fourth centenary of the Spanish landing in the Americas. A few decades later, it was remodeled and renamed to mark the 1927 Pan-American Conference. The name was meant to signify American brotherhood, hence the many busts of Latin and North American leaders that have been set up around the park – including one of US president Abraham Lincoln. The ceiba tree protected by a high iron fence in the center was planted in a mixture of soil from all the countries of the Americas. Ceiba trees, the giants of jungles and savannas, have been revered as life givers throughout Latin America for centu…
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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. The west tower is crowned by a copy of a famous bronze weather vane called La Giraldilla; the original was cast in Habana in 1632 by Jerónimo Martínez Pinzón and is popularly believed to be of Doña Inés de Bobadilla, the wife of gold-explorer Hernando de Soto. It is now kept in the Museo de la Ciudad, and the figure also appears on the Havana Club rum label. For the first 200 years of its existence, the Castillo was the residence of the Spanish captains general, until they finally got around to co…
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Palacio de Los Capitanes Generales
Filling the whole west side of the Plaza de Armas, this former palace is one of Cuba’s most majestic baroque buildings. It stands on the site of Habana’s original church, the Parroquial Mayor, which was established in 1574 but was damaged by the explosion of the Invencible in Habana harbor in 1741. Due to ongoing damage, the church was subsequently demolished in 1776. The current building dates from the late 1770s and it has served many purposes over the years. From 1791 until 1898, it was the residence of the Spanish captains general. From 1899 until 1902, the US military governors were based here, and during the first two decades of the 20th century the building bri…
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Us Interests Office
Set up in 1977 during a brief thaw in Cuban-American relations under President Jimmy Carter, the US Interests Office remains a huge source of controversy between the two countries, with the Cubans accusing its US neighbor of sponsoring all kinds of political dissent across the island from behind its heavily guarded doors. Surrounded by billboards displaying hysterical graffiti that liken George W Bush to Adolf Hitler, the building is the site of some of the worst tit-for-tat finger wagging on the island. Facing the office on the Malecón is the Plaza Tribuna Anti-Imperialista, built during the Elián González affair to host major in-your-face protests (earning it the local…
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Parque Central
A small but scenic haven from the belching buses and roaring taxis that ply their way along Paseo de Martí, Parque Central has long been a microcosm of daily Habana life. The park was expanded to its present size in the late 19th century after the city walls were knocked down, and the marble statue of José Martí at its center was the first of thousands to be erected in Cuba. Raised in 1905 on the 10th anniversary of the poet’s death, the monument is ringed by 28 palm trees planted to signify Martí’s birth date, January 28. Hard to miss is the group of baseball fans who linger, seemingly 24 hours a day, within ball-pitching distance of the statue’s marble base at the fa…
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Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla
As important as it is diminutive, the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla, which lies just behind the boat dock in the municipality of Regla, has a long and colorful history. Inside on the main altar you’ll find La Santísima Virgen de Regla, a black Madonna venerated in the Catholic faith and associated in the Santería religion with Yemayá, the orisha (spirit) of the ocean and the patron of sailors (always represented in blue). Legend claims that this image was carved by St Augustine ‘The African’ in the 5th century, and that in the year AD 453 a disciple brought the statue to Spain to safeguard it from barbarians. The small vessel in which the image was traveling su…
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Old City Wall
At the southern end of Av de Bélgica, close to the train station, lies the longest remaining stretch of the old city wall. The wall, which was designed to deter attacks from pirates and buccaneers, was begun in 1674 and took over 60 years to build. On its completion, it measured 1.5m thick, 10m high and 5km long. A bronze map at the remnants of the wall shows the outline of the original layout. Among the defenses erected along its course were nine bastions and some 180 big guns aimed toward the sea. The only way in and out of the city from 1740 until the demolition of the wall began on August 8, 1863, was through 11 highly guarded gates that closed every night and opened …
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Iglesia Y Convento de Santa Clara
This huge construction - which covers four city blocks - was the first nunnery in Habana. Built from 1638 to 1643, it was founded by nuns from Cartagena de Indias. Look out for the marvelous beamed ceiling in the nave, and the handsome columns and pleasing arches in the main cloister. Among the many residences here is the Casa del Marino (Sailor’s House), in the second cloister. According to records, this house (the current residence of academics) was built by a pirate-turned-respectable-shipowner who gave the building to his devout daughter. Ceasing to be a convent in 1920, the Santa Clara became the Ministry of Public Works. Today the team in charge of the restoration o…
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Edificio Focsa
Unmissable on the Havana skyline, the modernist Edificio Focsa was built in 1954–56 in a record 28 months using pioneering computer technology. In 1999 it was listed as one of the seven modern engineering wonders of Cuba. With 39 floors housing 373 apartments it was, on its completion in June 1956, the second-largest concrete structure of its type in the world, constructed in its entirety without the use of cranes. Falling on hard times in the early ’90s, the upper floors of the Focsa became nests for vultures and in 2000 an elevator cable snapped killing one person. Sparkling once more after a recent restoration project, this skyline-dominating Havana giant nowadays cont…
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Museo de la Cerámica Artística Cubana
On the square’s seaward side is the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, the oldest existing fort in the Americas, built between 1558 and 1577 on the site of an earlier fort destroyed by French privateers in 1555. The west tower is crowned by a copy of a famous bronze weather vane called La Giraldilla; the original was cast in Havana in 1632 by Jerónimo Martínez Pinzón and is popularly believed to be of Doña Inés de Bobadilla, the wife of gold explorer Hernando de Soto. It is now kept in the Museo de la Ciudad, and the figure also appears on the Havana Club rum label. Imposing and indomitable, the castle is ringed by an impressive moat and today shelters the Museo de la Cer…
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Santuario de San Lázaro
The object of one of Cuba’s most important pilgrimages, this small, sparkling church in the village of El Rincón just outside Santiago de las Vegas is the venerated shrine of San Lázaro, a Christian saint known for his ministrations to lepers and the poor. Every year on December 17 (Saint Lazarus’ feast day), thousands of Cubans descend on the sanctuary en masse, some on bloodied knees, others walking barefoot for kilometers through the night to exorcise evil spirits and pay off debts for miracles granted. San Lázaro is paralleled in Santería by the orisha Babalú Ayé, the Yoruba god of sickness. A statue of the saint made of wood with gold and marble finishes stan…
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Iglesia Y Monasterio de San Francisco de Asís
Originally constructed as a church in 1608 and rebuilt in the baroque style from 1719 to 1738, the Iglesia San Francisco de Asís was taken over by the Spanish state in 1841 as part of a political move against the powerful religious orders of the day. It ceased to be a consecrated church, and later served as a warehouse and post office. Protected from the public gaze are three former cloisters, spacious courtyards and more than 100 tiny apartments for members of the monastery. Today the church serves as a concert hall, featuring classical, chamber and choral music. The Museo de Arte Religioso (unguided/guided CUC$2/3; open 9am to 6pm) is replete with religious paintings, …
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Parque de Enamorados
Preserved in ‘Lover’s Park, ’ surrounded by streams of speeding traffic, lies a surviving section of the colonial Cárcel (Tacón Prison), built in 1838, where many Cuban patriots, including José Martí, were imprisoned. A brutal place that sent unfortunate prisoners off to perform hard labor in the nearby San Lázaro quarry, the prison was finally demolished in 1939, and the park that took its place is dedicated to the memory of those who had suffered so horribly within its walls. Two tiny cells and an equally minute chapel are all that remain of the hated prison today. The beautiful wedding cake-like building (art nouveau with a dash of eclecticism) behind the park, …
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ExpoCuba
A visit to Parque Lenin can be combined with a trip to ExpoCuba at Calabazar on the Carretera del Rocío in Arroyo Naranjo, 3km south of Las Ruinas restaurant. Opened in 1989, this large permanent exhibition showcases Cuba’s economic and scientific achievements in 25 pavilions based on themes such as sugar, farming, apiculture, animal science, fishing, construction, food, geology, sports and defense. Cubans visiting ExpoCuba flock to the amusement park at the center of the complex, bypassing the rather dry propaganda displays. Don Cuba, a revolving restaurant, is atop a tower. The Feria Internacional de La Habana, Cuba’s largest trade fair, is held at ExpoCuba the first…
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Colina Lenin
About 1.5km from the ferry you’ll see a high metal stairway that gives access to one of only two monuments in Habana to Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, better known to his friends and enemies as Lenin. Conceived in 1924 (before onetime Soviet stooge Fidel Castro was even born) by the Socialist mayor of Regla, Antonio Borsch, the monument was created to honor Lenin’s death, and was one of the first of its kind outside the USSR. Above the monolithic image of Lenin is an olive tree planted by Bosch surrounded by seven lithe figures; unlike many other Soviet-inspired monuments you’ll find in Cuba, this one creates hope. A small exhibition on the history of Colina Lenin is in a …
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Museo Hemingway
The villa’s interior has remained unchanged since the day Hemingway left (there are lots of stuffed trophies), and the wooded estate is now the Museo Hemingway. Hemingway left his house and its contents to the ‘Cuban people, ’ and his house has recently been the stimulus for a rare show of US-Cuban cooperation. In 2002 the Cubans agreed to a US-funded project to digitalize the documents stored in the basement of Finca La Vigía, and in May 2006 Cuba sent 11,000 of Hemingway’s private documents to the JFK Presidential Library in America for digitalization. This literary treasure trove (including a previously unseen epilogue for For Whom the Bell Tolls ) was finally…
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Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes Magnos del Morro
The imposing Castillo de los TresSantosReyes MagnosdelMorro was erected between 1589 and 1630 to protect the entrance to Havana harbor from pirates and foreign invaders (French corsair Jacques de Sores had sacked the city in 1555). Perched high on a rocky bluff above the ebbing Atlantic, the fort’s irregular polygonal shape, 3m-thick walls and deep protective moat offer a classic example of Renaissance military architecture. For more than a century the fort withstood numerous attacks by French, Dutch and English privateers, but in 1762, after a 44-day siege, a 14,000-strong British force captured El Morro by attacking from the landward side. The Castillo’s famous ligh…
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Torreón de Santa Dorotea de la Chorrera
One of a number of small battlements that once guarded Habana from pirates and warships, this small two-story tower at the mouth of Río Almendares contained sentry posts, artillery emplacements, storage rooms and a military barracks. Records indicate that it rarely housed more than 100 troops. The tower was designed by Italian engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli – who also designed a similar tower in Cojímar, east of town – and was completed during the administration of Álvaro de Luna y Sarmiento. In 1762 the tower was taken by the British prior to their attack on the Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes Magnos del Morro. Today it houses a small restaurant, Mesón la Chor…
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