Given its strategic location on one side of the harbor mouth, this fortress was one of the two most important defensive constructions in Havana’s defense system in colonial times. Construction works t …

Stretching 14 blocks, this street takes its name from the San Lázaro Hospital built in 1746. It was s=successively renamed as Calle Ancha del Norte, Calle del Basurero, Avenida Antonio Maceo and Aveni …

The 1836 Hotel Florida is a beautifully restored colonial mansion with a splendid neoclassical frontage, with Corinthian columns, and an atmospheric central courtyard. The hotel’s 25 rooms, which have …

Chinese immigrants were promised rivers of gold on their arrival in Cuba, but in reality they were confined to barracks in abject poverty, where conditions were brutal. Many of them thought of returni …

The succession of parabolic arcs made of reinforced concrete in contrast to the three stories of rectangular windows which alternate with the arcs create a sense of motion and modernity, accentuated b …

The Museum of Mural Painting exhibits some beautifully restored original frescoes in one of the oldest surviving houses in the city, owned by Antón Recio, important figure of 16th-century Havana. Open …

Despite appearing to be of the colonial era, the building on the plaza’s southwest side dates from the early 20th-century, when it served as the U.S. Embassy in the years immediately following indepen …

North on Mercaderes, you’ll reach Parque Simón Bolívar on the corner of Calle Obrapía. In addition to a statue of the Latin American independence movement leader, the park has a ceramic mural by Venez …

This is a four-story commercial center that includes shops, fast food outlets, a bank, food market, etc, which after wide-ranging remodeling and restoration, first opened in October 1997. At the time, …

This charming art gallery was established in 1994 by the late Venezuelan artist Carmen Montilla (1944-2004) with the support of the Office of the Historian of Havana. It is housed in 18th-century buil …