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 …

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 …

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, …

The main attraction of this small park is an elegant life-size Carrara marble statue of engineer Francisco de Albear y Lara, sculpted in 1895 by Cuban artist José Vilalta de Saavedra. Albear dedicated …

One of the most majestic buildings in Havana, it was partly built on the sight of the old wall that surrounded the city, and it is said that the stones of the wall were used in its construction. It wa …

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 …

The Museo Armería 9 de Abril displays a large collection of firearms and bladed weapons spanning the 18th to the 20th centuries. It occupies the former Compañía Armera de Cuba, a private gun shop that …