Must see attractions in Havana

Facing Havana harbor, the breezy Plaza de San Francisco de Asís first grew up in the 16th century when Spanish galleons stopped quayside on their passage…

Construction of this stately European-style boulevard – the first street outside the old city walls – began in 1770, and work was completed in the mid…

On the seaward side of Plaza de Armas is one of the oldest existing forts in the Americas, built between 1558 and 1577 on the site of an earlier fort…

One of Havana's best museums dazzles like a European stately home. It's replete with all manner of architectural features, including rococo furniture,…

Just when you think you've seen Havana's strangest, weirdest, most surreal and avant-garde art, along comes the 'eye of the cyclone' to re-stretch your…

Finished in 1930, the magnificent Edificio Bacardí, once the HQ of Cuba's erstwhile rum dynasty, is a triumph of art deco architecture, with a host of…

A little apart from the historical core, Plaza del Cristo hasn't benefited from a full restoration yet and this adds subtly to its charm. Here you can…

You don't have to be an Añejo Reserva quaffer to enjoy the Museo del Ron in the Fundación Havana Club, but it probably helps. The museum, with its…

This lovely, intimate plaza behind the Iglesia del Santo Ángel Custodio has benefited from a recent beautification project that has installed several…

Center stage in Plaza de la Revolución is this monument, which at 138.5m is Havana's tallest structure. Fronted by an impressive 17m marble statue of a…

Bizarrely overlooked by the tourist hordes, this baroque church in its own small square has Havana's most sumptuous ecclesiastical interior, as yet only…

The centerpiece of Fusterlandia is artist José Fuster's own house. It contains his workshop, where you can view his paintings and ceramics and sometimes…

Wedged into Plaza de Armas' northwestern corner, this beautiful baroque building was constructed in 1772 as the headquarters of the Spanish vice-governor…

There are at least four reasons that you should incorporate this community-driven back alley into any serious Havana outing: 1) it’s the unofficial HQ of…

Since 2001 Havana's international collection, displaying art from 500 BC to the present day, has been exhibited on three floors of the Palacio de los…

Despite its modernity, Playa cradles Cuba's second-largest church, an aesthetically pleasing neo-Romanesque structure topped by a giant dome. Built in…

Conceived by French urbanist Jean-Claude Forestier in the 1920s, the gigantic Plaza de la Revolución (known as Plaza Cívica until 1959) was part of Havana…

Founded by Dominican monks in 1728 and secularized in 1842, Havana's university began life in Habana Vieja before moving to its present site in 1902. The…

Havana's oldest square was laid out in the early 1520s, soon after the city's foundation, and was originally known as Plaza de Iglesia after a church –…

In the 17th century, anxious to defend the city from attacks by pirates and overzealous foreign armies, Cuba's paranoid colonial authorities drew up plans…