Havana

       

   HISTORY
   ORIENTATION
   DOWNTOWN HAVANA
   INFORMATION
   DANGERS & ANNOYANCES
   SIGHTS & ACTIVITIES
   HABANA VIEJA WALKING TOUR
   CENTRO HABANA ARCHITECTURAL TOUR
   COURSES
   HAVANA FOR CHILDREN
   TOURS
   SLEEPING
   EATING
   DRINKING
   ENTERTAINMENT
   SHOPPING
   GETTING THERE & AWAY
   GETTING AROUND
   OUTER HAVANA
   PLAYA & MARIANAO
   PARQUE LENIN AREA
   SANTIAGO DE LAS VEGAS AREA
   REGLA
   GUANABACOA
   SAN FRANCISCO DE PAULA
   SANTA MARÍA DEL ROSARIO
   PARQUE HISTÓRICO MILITAR MORRO-CABAÑA
   CASABLANCA
   COJÍMAR AREA
   PLAYAS DEL ESTE


‘Anything is possible in Havana,’ wrote British novelist Graham Greene of Cuba’s rhapsodic capital, echoing the thoughts and dreams of millions. Prophetically, he wasn’t far wrong. Truly one of the world’s great urban centers, this tough-minded yet ebullient Caribbean metropolis is a riotous mélange of noble monuments and hip-gyrating music that has few cultural equals.


Yet, scarred by its past and flummoxed by one of the worst economic fallouts of modern times, Havana is no Paris. Here, at the proverbial heart of Cuba’s great paradox, seductive beauty sidles up to spectacular decay, as life carries on precariously and capriciously, but always passionately.


For most visitors, the jewel in Havana’s ruptured crown is Habana Vieja, a fascinating work-in-progress that has taken one of Spain’s most beguiling colonial centers and rehabilitated it after years of poverty and neglect. Winking on the sidelines, a statuesque cluster of historical movers and shakers look down in granite and bronze: heroes and villains, colonizers and independence fighters, sugar merchants and mambo kings, hustlers and dreamers.


Enamored Habaneros love their city and it’s not difficult to see why. This is the metropolis that inspired Lorca and enchanted Hemingway, a place where Winston Churchill wistfully concluded that he could quite happily ‘leave his bones.’ But while the setting is mesmerizing and the history like pungent cigar smoke drifting through the louvers, the city is far more than just a museum to rogues and revolutionaries. At least half of Havana’s attraction is visceral. You’ll fall in love here, but you’ll struggle to ever understand why. The city is an impenetrable muse, the ultimate ‘riddle wrapped up in a mystery inside an enigma.’ Hit the streets and let it work its magic.

HIGHLIGHTS

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HISTORY

In 1514 San Cristóbal de la Habana was founded on the south coast of Cuba near the mouth of the Río Mayabeque by Spanish conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez. Named after the daughter of a famous Taíno Indian chief, the city was moved twice during its first five years due to mosquito infestations and wasn’t permanently established on its present site until December 17, 1519. According to local legend, the first Mass was said beneath a ceiba tree in present-day Plaza de Armas.

Havana is the most westerly and isolated of Diego Velázquez’ original villas and life was hard in the early days. Things didn’t get any better in 1538 when French corsairs and local slaves razed the city to the ground.

It took the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Peru to swing the pendulum in Havana’s favor. The town’s strategic location, at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, made it a perfect nexus point for the annual treasure fleets to regroup in the sheltered harbor before heading east. Thus endowed, its ascension was quick and decisive, and in 1607 Havana replaced Santiago as the capital of Cuba.

The city was sacked by French privateers led by Jacques de Sores in 1555; the Spanish replied by building the La Punta and El Morro forts between 1558 and 1630 to reinforce an already formidable protective ring. From 1674 to 1740, a strong wall around the city was added. These defenses kept the pirates at bay but proved ineffective when Spain became embroiled in the Seven Years’ War with Britain, the strongest maritime power of the era.

On June 6, 1762, a British army under the Earl of Albemarle attacked Havana, landing at Cojímar and striking inland to Guanabacoa. From there they drove west along the northeastern side of the harbor, and on July 30 they attacked El Morro from the rear. Other troops landed at La Chorrera, west of the city, and by August 13 the Spanish were surrounded and forced to surrender. The British held Havana for 11 months. (The same war cost France almost all its colonies in North America, including Québec and Louisiana – a major paradigm shift.)

When the Spanish regained the city a year later in exchange for Florida, they began a crash building program to upgrade the city’s defenses in order to avoid another debilitating siege. A new fortress, La Cabaña, was built along the ridge from which the British had shelled El Morro, and by the time the work was finished in 1774, Havana had become the most heavily fortified city in the New World, the ‘bulwark of the Indies.’

The British occupation resulted in Spain opening Havana to freer trade. In 1765 the city was granted the right to trade with seven Spanish cities instead of only Cádiz, and from 1818 Havana was allowed to ship its sugar, rum, tobacco and coffee directly to any part of the world. The 19th century was an era of steady progress: first came the railway in 1837, followed by public gas lighting (1848), the telegraph (1851), an urban transport system (1862), telephones (1888) and electric lighting (1890). By 1902 the city, which had been physically untouched by the devastating wars of independence, boasted a quarter of a million inhabitants.

Havana entered the 20th century on the cusp of a new beginning. With the quasi-independence of 1902, the city had expanded rapidly west along the Malecón and into the wooded glades of formerly off-limits Vedado. There was a large influx of rich Americans at the start of the Prohibition era, and the good times began to roll with a healthy (or not-so-healthy) abandon; by the 1950s Havana was a decadent gambling city frolicking to the all-night parties of American mobsters and scooping fortunes into the pockets of various disreputable hoods such as Meyer Lansky.

HAVANA STREET NAMES

For Fidel, it was an aberration. On taking power in 1959, the new revolutionary government promptly closed down all the casinos and then sent Lansky and his sycophantic henchmen back to Miami. The once-glittering hotels were divided up to provide homes for the rural poor. Havana’s long decline had begun.

Today the city’s restoration is ongoing and a stoic fight against the odds in a country where shortages are part of everyday life and money for raw materials is scarce. Since 1982 City Historian Eusebio Leal Spengler has been piecing Habana Vieja back together street by street and square by square with the aid of Unesco and a variety of foreign investors. Slowly but surely, the old starlet is starting to rediscover her former greatness.

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ORIENTATION

Surrounded by Havana province, the City of Havana is divided into 15 municipalities (Map).

Habana Vieja, sometimes referred to as the Old Town, sits on the western side of the harbor in an area once bounded by 17th-century city walls that ran along present Av de Bélgica and Av de las Misiones. In 1863 these walls were demolished and the city spilled west into Centro Habana, bisected by busy San Rafael (the dividing line between the two is still fuzzy). West of Calzada de Infante lies Vedado, the 20th-century hotel and entertainment district that developed after independence in 1902. Near Plaza de la Revolución and between Vedado and Nuevo Vedado, a huge government complex was erected in the 1950s. West of the Río Almendares are Miramar, Marianao and Playa, Havana’s most fashionable residential suburbs prior to the 1959 Revolution.

Between 1955 and 1958, a 733m-long tunnel was drilled between Habana Vieja and Habana del Este under the harbor mouth, and since 1959 a flurry of ugly high-rise housing blocks have been thrown up in Habana del Este, Cojímar (a former fishing village) and Alamar, northeast of the harbor. South of Habana del Este’s endless blocks of flats are the prettier colonial towns of Guanabacoa, San Francisco de Paula and Santa María del Rosario. On the eastern side of the harbor are Regla and Casablanca.

SCAMS

Well-documented jinetero (tout) problem aside, Havana is a remarkably safe city – particularly when compared with other Latin American capitals. Stroll through the atmospheric backstreets of Centro Habana or Habana Vieja of an evening, and your biggest worry is likely to be a badly pitched baseball or a flailing line of household washing.

But innocents beware. Scams do exist, particularly in the more touristy areas where well-practiced hustlers lurk outside the big hotels waiting to prey on unsuspecting foreign visitors.

One popular trick is for young men in the street to offer to change foreign currency into Cuban Convertibles at very favorable rates. Accept this at your peril. The money that you will be given is moneda nacional or Cuban pesos, visually similar to Convertibles, but worth approximately one-twenty-fifth of the value when you take them into a shop.

A second scam is the illicit sale of cheap cigars usually perpetuated by hissing street salesmen around Centro Habana and Habana Vieja. It is best to politely ignore these characters. Any bartering is not worth the bother. Cigars sold on the street are almost always substandard – something akin to substituting an expensive French wine with cheap white vinegar. Instead, buy your cigars direct from the factory or visit one of the numerous Casas del Habano that are scattered throughout the city.

Totally off the beaten track for most tourists are Havana’s working-class areas south of Centro Habana, including Cerro, Diez de Octubre and San Miguel del Padrón. Further south still is industrial Boyeros, with the golf course, zoo and international airport, and Arroyo Naranjo with Parque Lenin.

Visitors spend the bulk of their time in Habana Vieja, Centro Habana and Vedado. Important streets here include: Obispo, a pedestrian mall cutting through the center of Habana Vieja; Paseo de Martí (aka Paseo del Prado or just ‘Prado’), an elegant 19th-century promenade in Centro Habana; Av de Italia (aka Galiano), Centro Habana’s main shopping street for Cubans; Malecón (aka Av de Maceo), Havana’s broad coastal boulevard; and Calle 23 (aka La Rampa), the heart of Vedado’s commercial district.

Confusingly, many main avenues around Havana have two names in everyday use – a new name that appears on street signs and in this book, and an old name overwhelmingly preferred by locals. See the boxed text on opposite to sort it all out.

Maps

The best place to head for maps is the official government information service, Infotur, which has a wide variety of city maps, many of them free.

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DOWNTOWN HAVANA

For simplicity’s sake downtown Havana can be split into three main areas: Habana Vieja, Centro Habana and Vedado, which between them contain the bulk of the tourist sights. Centrally located Habana Vieja is the city’s atmospheric historical masterpiece; Centro Habana, to the west, provides an eye-opening look at the real-life Cuba in close-up; while the more majestic Vedado is the once-notorious Mafia-run district replete with hotels, restaurants and a pulsating nightlife.

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INFORMATION

Bookstores

Cultural Centers

Emergency

Internet Access

Havana doesn’t have any private internet cafes. Your best bet outside the Etecsa Telepuntos is in the posher hotels. Most Habaguanex hotels in Habana Vieja have internet terminals and sell scratch cards (CUC$6 per hour) that work throughout the chain. You don’t have to be a guest to use them.

Libraries

Foreign students with a carnet (or letter from their academic institution) can get library cards. Each library requires its own card; show up with two passport photos.

Media

Cuba has a fantastic radio culture, where you’ll hear everything from salsa to Supertramp, plus live sports broadcasts and soap operas. Radio is also the best source for listings on concerts, plays, movies and dances.

HABANA VIEJA

VEDADO (p102-3)

CENTRO HABANA Click here

Medical Services

Most of Cuba’s specialist hospitals offering services to foreigners are based in Havana; see www.cubanacan.cu for details. Consult the Playa & Marianao section of this chapter Click here for other international clinics and pharmacies.

Money

Post

Telephone

Toilets

Not overendowed with clean available public toilets, most tourists slip into the upscale hotels if they’re caught short. The following establishments are all fairly relaxed about toilet security.

Tourist Information

Travel Agencies

Many of the following agencies also have offices at the airport, in the international arrivals lounge of Terminal 3.

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DANGERS & ANNOYANCES

Havana is not a dangerous city, especially when compared to other metropolitan areas in North and South America. There is almost no gun crime, violent robbery, organized gang culture, teenage delinquency, drugs, or dangerous no-go zones. Rather, a heavy police presence on the streets and stiff prison sentences for crimes such as assault have acted as a major deterrent for would-be criminals and kept the dirty tentacles of organized crime at bay.

But it’s not all love and peace, man. Petty crime against tourists in Havana – almost nonexistent in the 1990s – is widespread and on the rise, with pickpocketing, bag-snatching by youths mounted on bicycles and the occasional face-to-face mugging all being reported.

Bring a money belt and keep it on you at all times, making sure that you wear it concealed – and tightly secured – around your waist.

In hotels use a safety deposit box (if there is one) and never leave money/passports/credit cards lying around during the day. Theft from hotel rooms is tediously common, with the temptation of earning three times your monthly salary in one fell swoop often too hard to resist.

In bars and restaurants it is wise to check your change. Purposeful overcharging, especially when someone is mildly inebriated, is a favorite (and easy) trick.

Visitors from the well-ordered countries of Europe or litigation-obsessed North America should keep an eye out for crumbling sidewalks, manholes with no covers, inexplicable driving rules, veering cyclists, carelessly lobbed front-door keys (in Centro Habana) and enthusiastically hit baseballs (almost everywhere). Waves cascading over the Malecón sea wall might look pretty, but the resulting slime-fest has been known to throw Lonely Planet–wielding tourists flying unceremoniously onto their asses.

For more popular scams see the boxed text on Click here.

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SIGHTS & ACTIVITIES

Habana Vieja

Studded with architectural jewels from every era, Habana Vieja offers visitors one of the finest collections of urban edifices in the Americas. At a conservative estimate, the Old Town alone contains over 900 buildings of historical importance with myriad examples of illustrious architecture ranging from intricate baroque to glitzy art deco.

For a whistle-stop introduction to the best parts of the neighborhood, check out the suggested walking tour Click here or stick closely to the four main squares – Plaza de Armas, Plaza Vieja, Plaza de San Francisco de Asís and Plaza de la Catedral.

HAVANA IN…

Two Days

Go for an early morning caffeine jolt in Café El Escorial overlooking Plaza Vieja before investigating the colonial treasures of the Museo de la Ciudad. Clear your head afterwards with a casual stroll down Calle Mercaderes, where specialist shops and colonial mansions offer plenty of streetside diversions. Lunchtime snacks can be procured upstairs at the Café Santo Domingo, while afternoon entertainment is everywhere in Calle Obispo. Line up for a guided tour of the Capitolio before decamping for a predinner daiquirí in El Floridita. Have dinner in the legendary Paladar La Guarida and catch a late-night show in Cabaret Parisién in the Hotel Nacional.

Head through Chinatown on day two, stopping for an early lunch in Tien-Tan. Admire the architectural wonders on the Centro Habana Architectural Tour before tracking west along the Malecón for a reviving drink in the bar of the Hotel Habana Libre. Reach for Havana’s culinary heights in La Torre on top of the Focsa building before heading down for a comedy show at Café TV.

Four Days

Follow the two-day itinerary, and on the morning of day three board the Havana Bus Tour for the Plaza de la Revolución. After the obligatory Che mural photos board a second bus for Miramar, disembarking at the Acuario Nacional (p156) for an afternoon dolphin show. Stroll over to the fascinating Fundación Naturaleza y El Hombre before tracking back to El Aljibe for a classic Cuban dinner. For evening entertainment roll the dice and choose between a concert at Teatro Karl Marx, hot salsa at the Casa de la Música or full-blown Cuba kitsch at the Tropicana Nightclub. On day four, pack up your beach bag and hop on the Havana Bus Tour to Playa Santa María del Mar.

The renovation of Habana Vieja is overseen by the government-run agency Habaguanex and directed by long-standing City Historian, Eusebio Leal Spengler. Eager to recreate a ‘living’ historic center that integrates the neighborhood’s 70,000-plus inhabitants, Habaguanex splits its US$160 million annual tourist income between further restoration (45%) and other deserving social projects in the city (55%).

PLAZA DE LA CATEDRAL

Habana Vieja’s most uniform square is a museum to Cuban baroque with all the surrounding buildings (including the city’s magnificent cathedral) dating from the 1700s. Despite this homogeneity, it is actually the newest of the four squares in the Old Town with its present layout dating from the 18th century.

Dominated by two unequal towers and framed by a theatrical baroque facade designed by Italian architect Francesco Borromini, the graceful Catedral de San Cristóbal de La Habana (cnr San Ignacio & Empedrado; before noon) was described by novelist Alejo Carpentier as ‘music set in stone.’ The Jesuits began construction of the church in 1748 and work continued despite their expulsion in 1767. When the building was finished in 1787, the diocese of Havana was created and the church became a cathedral – one of the oldest in the Americas. The remains of Columbus were interred here from 1795 to 1898 when they were moved to Seville. The best time to visit is during Sunday Mass (10:30am).

On the corner to the left of the cathedral is the Centro Wilfredo Lam ( 862-2611; cnr San Ignacio & Empedrado; admission CUC$3; 10am-5pm Mon-Sat), a cafe and exhibition center named after the island’s most celebrated painter but which usually displays the works of more modern painters.

Situated on the western side of the Plaza is the majestic Palacio de los Marqueses de Aguas Claras (San Ignacio No 54), a one-time baroque palace completed in 1760 and widely lauded for the beauty of its shady Andalucian patio. Today it houses the Restaurante El Patio.

Directly opposite are the Casa de Lombillo and the Palacio del Marqués de Arcos. The former, built in 1741, once served as a post office (a stone-mask ornamental mailbox built into the wall is still in use). Since 2000 it has functioned as the main office for the City Historian, Eusebio Leal Spengler.

The square’s southern aspect is taken up by its oldest building, the resplendent Palacio de los Condes de Casa Bayona built in 1720. Today it functions as the Museo de Arte Colonial ( 862-6440; San Ignacio No 61; unguided/guided CUC$2/3, camera CUC$2; 9am-6:30pm), a small museum displaying colonial furniture and decorative arts. Among the finer exhibits are pieces of china with scenes of colonial Cuba, a collection of ornamental flowers, and many colonial-era dining room sets.

At the end of a short cul-de-sac, the Taller Experimental de Gráfica ( 862-0979; Callejón del Chorro No 6; admission free; 10am-4pm Mon-Fri) is Havana’s most cutting-edge art workshop, which offers the possibility of engraving classes (Click here).

PLAZA DE ARMAS

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 – the Parroquial Mayor – that once stood on the site of the present-day Palacio de los Capitanes Generales. The name Plaza de Armas (Square of Arms) wasn’t adopted until the late 16th century, when the colonial governor, then housed in the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, used the site to conduct military exercises. The modern plaza, along with most of the buildings around it, dates from the late 1700s.

In the center of the square, which is lined with royal palms and enlivened by a daily (except Sundays) secondhand book market, is a marble statue of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (1955), the man who set Cuba on the road to independence in 1868.

Filling the whole west side of the Plaza is the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales dating from the 1770s. Built on the site of Havana’s original church, this muscular baroque beauty 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 briefly became the presidential palace. Since 1968 it has been home to the Museo de la Ciudad ( 861-6130; Tacón No 1; unguided/guided CUC$3/4, camera CUC$2; 9am-6pm), one of Havana’s most comprehensive and interesting museums that wraps its way regally around a splendid central courtyard adorned with a white marble statue of Christopher Columbus (1862). Artifacts include period furniture, military uniforms and old-fashioned 19th-century horse carriages, while old photos vividly recreate events from Havana’s rich history such as the 1898 sinking of US battleship Maine in the harbor. It’s better to body-swerve the pushy attendants and wander around at your own pace.

Wedged into the square’s northwest corner is the Palacio del Segundo Cabo (O’Reilly No 4; admission CUC$1), constructed in 1772 as the headquarters of the Spanish vice-governor. After several reincarnations as a post office, palace of the Senate, Supreme Court, the National Academy of Arts and Letters, and the seat of the Cuban Geographical Society, the building is today a well-stocked bookstore Click here. Pop-art fans should take a look at the Sala Galería Raúl Martínez ( 9am-6pm Mon-Sat).

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 Cerámica Artística Cubana ( 861-6130; admission CUC$2; 9am-6pm), displaying work by some of Cuba’s leading artists.

The tiny neoclassical Doric chapel on the east side of the Plaza, known as the Museo El Templete (admission CUC$2; 8:30am-6pm), was erected in 1828 at the point where Havana’s first Mass was held beneath a ceiba tree in November 1519. A similar ceiba tree has now replaced the original. Inside the chapel are three large paintings of the event by the French painter Jean Baptiste Vermay (1786–1833).

Adjacent to El Templete is the late-18th-century Palacio de los Condes de Santovenia, today the five-star, 27-room Hotel Santa Isabel. Nearby is the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural ( 863-9361; Obispo No 61; admission CUC$3; 9:30am-7pm Tue-Sun), which contains examples of Cuba’s flora and fauna.

You’d think that the last thing Havana would need is a car museum, but a block down Calle Oficios lies the small, surreal Museo del Automóvil (Oficios No 13; admission CUC$1; 9am-7pm) stuffed with ancient Thunderbirds, Pontiacs and Ford Model Ts, at least half of which appear to be in better shape than the antiquated automobiles that ply the streets outside.

ALONG MERCADERES & OBRAPíA

Cobbled, car-free Calle Mercaderes (literally: Merchant’s Street) has been fully restored to replicate the splendor of its 18th-century high-water mark. Myriad museums along here include the Casa de Asia ( 863-9740; Mercaderes No 111; admission free; 10am-6pm Tue-Sat, 9am-1pm Sun), with paintings and sculpture from China and Japan; and the Museo de Tabaco ( 861-5795; Mercaderes No 120; admission free; 10am-5pm Mon-Sat), where you can gawp at various indigenous pipes and idols and buy some splendid smokes.

The Maqueta de La Habana Vieja (Mercaderes No 114; unguided/guided CUC$1/2; 9am-6pm) is a 1:500 scale model of Habana Vieja complete with an authentic soundtrack meant to replicate a day in the life of the city. It’s incredibly detailed and provides an excellent way of geographically acquainting yourself with the city’s historical core. Come here first.

A few doors down, the Casa de la Obra Pía (Obrapía No 158; admission CUC$1, camera CUC$2; 9am-4:30pm Tue-Sat, 9:30am-12:30pm Sun) is a typical Havana aristocratic residence originally built in 1665 and rebuilt in 1780. Baroque decoration – including an intricate portico made in Cádiz, Spain – covers the exterior facade. In addition to its historical value, the house today also contains one of the City Historian’s most commendable social projects, a sewing and needlecraft cooperative that has a workshop inside and a small shop selling clothes and textiles on Calle Mercaderes. Across the street, the Casa de África ( 861-5798; Obrapía No 157; admission CUC$2; 9:30am-7:30pm) houses sacred objects relating to Santería collected by ethnographer Fernando Ortíz.

The corner of Mercaderes and Obrapía has an international flavor with a bronze statue of Simón Bolívar, the Latin America liberator, and a museum ( 861-3988; Mercaderes No 160; donations accepted; 9am-5pm Tue-Sun) dedicated to his life across the street. The Casa de México Benito Juárez ( 861-8166; Obrapía No 116; admission CUC$1; 10:15am-5:45pm Tue-Sat, 9am-1pm Sun) exhibits Mexican folk art and plenty of books, but not a lot on Señor Juárez (Mexico’s first indigenous president) himself. Just east is the Casa Oswaldo Guayasamín ( 861-3843; Obrapía No 111; donations accepted; 9am-2:30pm Tue-Sun), the old studio and now a museum of the great Ecuadorian artist who painted Fidel in numerous poses.

PLAZA DE SAN FRANCISCO DE ASíS

Facing Havana harbor, the breezy Plaza de San Francisco de Asís first grew up in the 16th century when Spanish galleons stopped by at the quayside on their passage through the Indies to Spain. A market took root in the 1500s followed by a church in 1608, though when the pious monks complained of too much noise the market was moved a few blocks south to Plaza Vieja. The Plaza de San Francisco underwent a full restoration in the late 1990s and is most notable for its uneven cobbles and the white marble Fuente de los Leones (Fountain of Lions) carved by the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Gaginni in 1836. A more modern statue outside the square’s famous church depicts El Caballero de París, a well-known street person who roamed Havana during the 1950s, engaging passers-by with his philosophies on life, religion, politics and current events. On the eastern side of the plaza stands the Terminal Sierra Maestra cruise terminal, which dispatches shiploads of weekly tourists, while nearby the domed Lonja del Comercio is a former commodities market erected in 1909 and restored in 1996 to provide office space for foreign companies with joint ventures in Cuba.

The southern side of the square is taken up by the impressive Iglesia y Monasterio de San Francisco de Asís. Originally constructed in 1608 and rebuilt in the baroque style from 1719 to 1738, 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, when it ceased to be a church. Today it’s both a concert hall ( from 5pm or 6pm) hosting classical music and the Museo de Arte Religioso ( 862-3467; unguided/guided CUC$2/3; 9am-6pm) replete with religious paintings, silverware, woodcarvings and ceramics.

To the side of the Palacio de Gobierno on Churruca is the Coche Mambí (admission free; 9am-2pm Tue-Sat), a 1900 train car built in the US and brought to Cuba in 1912. Put into service as the Presidential Car, it’s a palace on wheels, with a formal dining room, louvered wooden windows and, back in its heyday, fans cooling the car with dry ice.

MUSEO DEL RON

You don’t have to be an Añejo Reserva quaffer to enjoy the Museo del Ron ( 861-8051; San Pedro No 262; admission incl guide CUC$5; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm Sat & Sun) in the Fundación Havana Club, but it probably helps. The museum, with its bilingual guided tour showing rum-making antiquities and the complex brewing process, gets mixed reviews from travelers, though most give a hearty thumbs-up to the popular dancing lessons held here weekday mornings (Click here).

PLAZA VIEJA

Laid out in 1559, Plaza Vieja (Old Square) is Havana’s most architecturally eclectic square where Cuban baroque nestles seamlessly next to Gaudí-inspired art nouveau. Originally called Plaza Nueva (New Square), it was initially used for military exercises and later served as an open-air marketplace. During the Batista regime an ugly underground parking lot was constructed here, but the monstrosity was demolished in 1996 to make way for a massive renovation project. Sprinkled liberally with bars, restaurants and cafes, Plaza Vieja today boasts its own micro-brewery, the Angela Landa primary school and a beautiful fenced-in fountain.

On the northwestern corner is Havana’s cámara oscura (admission CUC$2; 9am-5pm Tue-Sat, 9am-1pm Sun) providing live, 360-degree views of the city from atop a 35m-tall tower. Explanations are in Spanish and English. In the arcade adjacent is the Fototeca de Cuba ( 862-2530; Mercaderes No 307; admission free; 10am-5pm Tue-Fri, 9am-noon Sat), a photo gallery with intriguing exhibits by local and international artists.

Encased in the plaza’s oldest building is the quirky Museo de Naipes (Muralla No 101; admission free; 9am-6pm Tue-Sun), a playing-card museum with a 2000-strong collection that includes rock stars, rum drinks and round cards. Next door is La Casona Centro de Arte ( 861-8544; Muralla No 107; admission free; 10am-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-2pm Sat), with great solo and group shows by up-and-coming Cuban artists.

Down the street, the Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau ( 861-6251; www.centropablo.cult.cu; Muralla No 63; admission free; 9am-5:30pm Tue-Sat), a leading cultural institution that was formed under the auspices of the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (Uneac; Union of Cuban Writers and Artists) in 1996. The center hosts expositions, poetry readings and live acoustic music. Its Salón de Arte Digital is renowned for its groundbreaking digital art.

The square’s most distinctive building is the Gaudí-esque Palacio Cueto (cnr Muralla & Mercaderes), Havana’s finest example of art nouveau that was constructed in 1906. Its outrageously ornate facade once housed a warehouse and a hat factory before it was rented by José Cueto in the 1920s as the Palacio Vienna hotel. Habaguanex has recently pledged to restore the building, empty and unused since the early ’90s.

CALLE OBISPO & AROUND

Narrow, car-free Calle Obispo (literally: Bishop’s Street), Habana Vieja’s main interconnecting artery, is packed with art galleries, shops, music bars and people.

The Museo de Numismático ( 861-5811; Obispo btwn Aguiar & Habana; admission CUC$1; 9am-4:45pm) brings together various collections of medals, coins and banknotes from around the world, including a stash of 1000 mainly American gold coins (1869–1928) and a full chronology of Cuban banknotes from the 19th century to the present. Opposite, the new Museo 28 Septiembre de los CDR (Obispo btwn Aguiar & Habana; admission CUC$2; 9am-5pm) dedicates two floors to the nationwide Comites de la Defensa de la Revolución (CDR; Committees for the Defense of the Revolution). Commendable neighborhood-watch schemes, or grassroots spying agencies? You decide. Two blocks further down the Museo de Pintura Mural (Obispo btwn Mercaderes & Oficios; admission free; 10am-6pm) exhibits some beautifully restored original frescoes in the Casa del Mayorazgo de Recio, popularly considered to be Havana’s oldest surviving house. Two doors down is the Museo de la Orfebrería ( 863-9861; Obispo No 113; admission donation; 9am-4:30pm Tue-Sat, 9:30am-12:30pm Mon), a silverware museum set out in the house of erstwhile silversmith Gregorio Tabares, who had a workshop here from 1707.

Across Obispo from the Hotel Ambos Mundos lies the Edificio Santo Domingo (Mercaderes btwn Obispo & O’Reilly) on the site of Havana’s old university between 1728 and 1902. It was originally part of a convent; the current incongruous office block dates from the 1950s when the roof was used as a helicopter landing pad. In 2006 Habaguanex rebuilt the convent’s original bell tower and inserted an elaborate baroque doorway onto the building’s eastern side. The result provides an interesting juxtaposition of old and new.

PLAZA DEL CRISTO & AROUND

Habana Vieja’s fifth (and most overlooked) square lies at the west end of the neighborhood, a little apart from the historical core, and has yet to benefit from the City Historian’s makeover. It’s worth a look for the Parroquial del Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje, a church dating from 1732, although there has been a Franciscan hermitage on this site since 1640. Still only partially renovated, the building is most notable for its intricate stained-glass windows and brightly painted wooden ceiling. The Plaza del Cristo also boasts a primary school (hence the noise) and a microcosmic slice of everyday Cuban life sin tourists.

Sidetrack a few blocks up Brasil and you’ll stumble upon the Museo de la Farmacia Habanera (cnr Brasil & Compostela; admission free; 9am-5pm), founded in 1886 by Catalan José Sarrá and once considered the second most important pharmacy in the world. The antique shop still acts as a pharmacy for Cubans, but also as a museum displaying an elegant mock-up of an old drugstore with some interesting historical explanations.

CHURCHES

South of Plaza Vieja is a string of important but little-visited churches. The 1638–43 Iglesia y Convento de Santa Clara ( 866-9327; Cuba No 610; admission CUC$2; 9am-4pm Mon-Fri) stopped being a convent in 1920. Later this complex was the Ministry of Public Works, and today the Habana Vieja restoration team is based here. You can visit the large cloister and nuns’ cemetery or even spend the night (with reservations far in advance; Click here). The Old Town’s other main convent is the Iglesia y Convento de Nuestra Señora de Belén ( 861-7283; Compostela btwn Luz & Acosta; admission CUC$2; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat, 9am-1pm Sun), completed in 1718 and run by nuns from the Order of Bethlehem and (later) the Jesuits. Today it is a convalescent home for senior citizens funded by the City Historian’s office.

Havana’s oldest surviving church (built in 1640 and rebuilt in 1674) is the Iglesia Parroquial del Espíritu Santo ( 862-3140; Acosta 161; 8am-noon & 3-6pm), with many burials in the crypt. Built in 1755, the Iglesia y Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Merced (Cuba No 806; 8am-noon & 3-5:30pm) was reconstructed in the 19th century. Beautiful gilded altars, frescoed vaults and a number of old paintings create a sacrosanct mood; there’s a quiet cloister adjacent.

The Iglesia de San Francisco de Paula ( 41-50-37; cnr Leonor Pérez & Desamparados) is one of Havana’s most attractive churches. Fully restored in 2000, it is all that remains of the San Francisco de Paula women’s hospital from the mid-1700s. Lit up at night for concerts, the stained glass, heavy cupola and baroque facade are romantic and inviting.

One of Havana’s newest buildings is the beautiful gold-domed Catedral Ortodoxa Nuestra Señora de Kazán (Av Carlos Manuel de Céspedes btwn Sol & Santa Clara), a Russian Orthodox church built in the early 2000s and consecrated at a ceremony attended by Raúl Castro in October 2008. The church was part of an attempt to reignite Russian-Cuban relations after they went sour in 1991.

MUSEO–CASA NATAL DE JOSé MARTí

The Museo–Casa Natal de José Martí ( 861-3778; Leonor Pérez No 314; admission CUC$1, camera CUC$2; 9am-5pm Tue-Sat) is a humble, two-story dwelling on the edge of Habana Vieja where the apostle of Cuban independence was born on January 28, 1853. Today it’s a small museum that displays letters, manuscripts, photos, books and other mementos of his life. While not as comprehensive as the Martí museum on Plaza de la Revolución, it’s a charming little abode and well worth a small detour.

Nearby, to the west across Av de Bélgica, is the longest remaining stretch of the old city wall (see boxed text,).

THE WALL

Located at the gateway to the New World, colonial Havana was the strategic nexus of Spain’s lucrative Latin American empire and the congregation point for its annual trans-Atlantic treasure fleet. In the 17th century, anxious to defend the city from attacks by pirates and overzealous foreign armies, Cuba’s perennially paranoid colonial authorities drew up plans for the construction of a 5km-long city wall.

Built on the backs of slave labor, the wall was begun in 1674 and took over 60 years to finish. On its completion in the 1740s, it was 1.5m thick and 10m high, running along a line now occupied by Av de las Misiones and Av de Bélgica.

Among the wall’s myriad defenses were nine bastions and 180 big guns aimed toward the sea. The only way in and out of the city was through 11 heavily guarded gates that closed every night and opened every morning to the sound of a solitary gunshot.

As the age of piracy passed and the burgeoning city began to outgrow its 17th-century parameters, the wall’s importance gradually diminished. In 1863 the colonial authorities ordered its demolition, though the work began piecemeal and much of the structure remained intact more than half a century later.

EDIFICIO BACARDí

Finished in 1929, the magnificent Edificio Bacardí (Bacardí building; Av de las Misiones btwn Empedrado & San Juan de Dios; hours vary) is a triumph of art-deco architecture with a whole host of lavish finishings that somehow manage to make kitschy look cool. Hemmed in by other buildings, it’s hard to get a full kaleidoscopic view of the structure from street level, though the opulent bell tower can be glimpsed from all over Havana. There’s a bar in the lobby and for a few Convertibles you can travel up to the tower for an eagle’s-eye view.

IGLESIA DEL SANTO ANGEL CUSTODIO

Originally constructed in 1695, this church ( 861-0469; Compostela No 2; during Mass 7:15am Tue, Wed & Fri, 6pm Thu, Sat & Sun) was pounded by a ferocious hurricane in 1846 after which it was entirely rebuilt in neo-Gothic style. Among the notable historical and literary figures that have passed through its handsome doors are 19th-century Cuban novelist Cirilo Villaverde, who set the main scene of his novel Cecilia Valdés here, as well as Félix Varela and José Martí, who were both baptized in the church in 1788 and 1853 respectively.

Centro Habana

CAPITOLIO NACIONAL

The incomparable Capitolio Nacional ( 863-7861; unguided/guided CUC$3/4; 9am-8pm) is Havana’s most ambitious and grandiose building, constructed after the ‘Dance of the Millions’ had gifted the Cuban government a seemingly bottomless treasure box of sugar money. Similar to the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC, but (marginally) taller and much richer in detail, the work 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 US$17 million. Formerly it was the seat of the Cuban Congress but, since 1959, it has housed the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the National Library of Science and Technology.

Constructed with white Capellanía limestone and block granite, the entrance is guarded by six rounded Doric columns atop a staircase that leads up from the Prado. A stone cupola rising 62m and topped with a replica of 16th-century Florentine sculptor Giambologna’s bronze statue of Mercury in the Palazzo de Bargello looks out over the Havana skyline. Directly below the dome is a copy of a 24-carat diamond set in the floor. Highway distances between Havana and all sites in Cuba are calculated from this point.

The entryway opens up into the Salón de los Pasos Perdidos (Room of the Lost Steps, so named because of its unusual acoustics), at the center of which is the statue of the republic, an enormous bronze woman standing 11m tall and symbolizing the mythic Guardian of Virtue and Work. In size, it’s smaller only than the gold Buddha in Nava, Japan, and the Lincoln Monument in Washington, DC.

REAL FáBRICA DE TABACOS PARTAGáS

One of Havana’s oldest and most famous cigar factories, the landmark neoclassical Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás ( 862-0086; Industria No 520 btwn Barcelona & Dragones; tours CUC$10; every 15 min 9:30-11am & 12:30-3pm) 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 visitors find they smack of a human zoo. Still, if you have even a passing interest in tobacco and/or Cuban work environments, it’s probably worth a peep.

PARQUE DE LA FRATERNIDAD

Leafy Parque de la Fraternidad 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 is meant to signify American brotherhood, hence the many busts of Latin and North American leaders that embellish the green areas – including one of US president, Abraham Lincoln. Today the park is the terminus of numerous metro bus routes, and is sometimes referred to as ‘Jurassic Park’ for the plethora of photogenic old American cars now used as colectivos (collective taxis) that congregate here.

The Fuente de la India (on a traffic island opposite the Hotel Saratoga) is a white Carrara marble fountain, carved by Giuseppe Gaginni in 1837 for the Count of Villanueva. It portrays a regal Indian woman adorned with a crown of eagle’s feathers and seated on a throne surrounded by four gargoylesque dolphins. In one hand she holds a horn-shaped basket filled with fruit, in the other a shield bearing the city’s coat of arms.

Just east of the sculpture, across Paseo de Martí is the Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba ( 863-5953; Paseo de Martí No 615; admission CUC$10; 9am-4pm Mon-Sat). A museum here provides a worthwhile overview of the Santería religion, the saints and their powers, although some travelers have complained that the exhibits don’t justify the price. There are tambores (Santería drum ceremonies) here on alternate Fridays at 4:30pm. Note that there’s a church dress code for the tambores (no shorts or tank tops).

A little out on a limb but well worth the walk is the Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Av Simon Bolivar btwn Gervasio & Padre Varela), an inspiring marble creation with a distinctive white steeple, where you can enjoy a few precious minutes of quiet and cool contemplation away from the craziness of the street. This church is rightly famous for its magnificent stained-glass windows, and the light that penetrates through the eaves first thing in the morning (when the church is deserted) gives the place an almost ethereal quality.

PARQUE CENTRAL & AROUND

Diminutive Parque Central is a scenic haven from the belching buses and roaring taxis that ply their way along the Prado. The park, long a microcosm of daily Havana life, 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 (1905) at its center was the first of thousands to be erected in Cuba. Raised 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 over to one side is the group of baseball fans who linger 24/7 at the famous Esquina Caliente (see boxed text,).

On the park’s southwest corner is the ornate neobaroque Centro Gallego (Paseo de Martí No 458), erected as a Galician social club between 1907 and 1914. The Centro was built around the existing Teatro Tacón, which opened in 1838 with five masked Carnaval dances. This connection is the basis of claims by the present 2000-seat Gran Teatro de La Habana ( 861-3077; guided tours CUC$2; 9am-6pm) that it’s the oldest operating theater in the Western hemisphere. History notwithstanding, the architecture is brilliant, as are many of the weekend performances (Click here).

Just across the San Rafael pedestrian mall is the Hotel Inglaterra, Havana’s oldest hotel, which first opened its doors in 1856 on the site of a popular bar called El Louvre (the hotel’s alfresco bar still bears the name). Facing leafy Parque Central, the building exhibits neoclassical design features in vogue at the time, although the interior decor is distinctly Moorish. At a banquet here in 1879, José Martí made a speech advocating Cuban independence, and much later US journalists covering the Spanish-Cuban-American War stayed at the hotel.

LA ESQUINA CALIENTE

To the uninitiated, the sight of 30 or more Cuban men remonstrating loudly in a Havana park probably appears more like a malevolent mob than a spontaneous gathering of sports enthusiasts. But ask any of the aggrieved fist-shakers who frequent the boisterous Esquina Caliente (literally ‘hot corner’) in Parque Central what they’re arguing about and you’ll get back a rather innocuous reply: baseball.

While the Canadians debate hockey and the Brits bore each other with cricket statistics, the Cubans seek solace in baseball, a sport that inspires more saber-rattling than a May Day rally.

Havana’s key baseball rivalry revolves around Los Industriales (the silverware-hogging Manchester United) and Los Metropolitanos (the less successful Manchester City), though the biggest debates are reserved for when the boys from Santiago roll into town and Havana’s two sets of opposing supporters form a formidable – if temporary – alliance.

The ‘hot corner’ is the place to go if you want to discuss form, home runs or the chances of Liván Hernández making a Cuban comeback. It runs from dawn till dusk 365 days a year and, in contrast to cricket, rain never stops play (instead the group reconvenes under the porch of the adjacent Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes).

A detour along Calle San Rafael, a riot of peso stalls, 1950s department store and local cinemas, gives an immediate insight into everyday life in economically challenged Cuba.

MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES

Cuba has a huge art culture and its dual-site art museum rivals its counterpart in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the title of ‘best art museum in the Caribbean.’ You can spend a whole day here viewing everything from Greek ceramics to Cuban pop art.

Arranged inside the fabulously eclectic Centro Asturianas (a work of art in its own right), the Colección de Arte Universal ( 863-9484; cnr Agramonte & San Rafael; admission CUC$5, children under 14 free; 10am-6pm Tue-Sat, 10am-2pm Sun) exhibits international art from 500 BC to the present day on three separate floors. Highlights include an extensive Spanish collection (with a canvas by El Greco), some 2000-year-old Roman mosaics, Greek pots from the 5th century BC and a suitably refined Gainsborough canvas (in the British room).

Two blocks away, the Colección de Arte Cubano ( 861-3858; Trocadero btwn Agramonte & Av de las Misiones; admission CUC$5; 10am-6pm Tue-Sat, 10am-2pm Sun) displays purely Cuban art and, if you’re pressed for time, is the better of the duo. Works are displayed in chronological order starting on the 3rd floor and are surprisingly varied. Artists to look out for are Guillermo Collazo, considered to be the first truly great Cuban artist, Rafael Blanco with his cartoon-like paintings and sketches, Raúl Martínez, a master of 1960s Cuban pop art, and the Picasso-like Wilfredo Lam.

MUSEO DE LA REVOLUCIóN

The Museo de la Revolución ( 862-4093; Refugio No 1; unguided/guided CUC$4/6, camera extra; 10am-5pm) 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 the present-day socialist regime (with mucho propaganda). The downstairs rooms have some interesting exhibits on the 1953 Moncada attack and the life of Che Guevara, and highlight a Cuban penchant for displaying blood-stained military uniforms. Most of the labels are in English and Spanish. In front of the building is a fragment of the former city wall as well as an SAU-100 tank used by Castro during the 1961 battle of the Bay of Pigs.

In the space behind you’ll find the Pavillón Granma, a memorial to the 18m yacht that carried Fidel Castro and 81 other revolutionaries from Tuxpán, Mexico to Cuba in December 1956. It’s encased in glass and guarded 24 hours a day, presumably to stop anyone from breaking in and making off for Florida in it. The pavilion is surrounded by other vehicles associated with the Revolution and is accessible from the Museo de la Revolución.

PRADO (PASEO DE MARTí)

Construction of this stately European-style boulevard (officially known as Paseo de Martí) – the first street outside the old city walls – began in 1770, and the work was completed in the mid-1830s during the term of Captain General Miguel Tacón (1834–38). The original idea was to create a boulevard as splendid as any found in Paris or Barcelona (Prado owes more than a passing nod to Las Ramblas). The famous bronze lions that guard the central promenade at either end were added in 1928.

Notable Prado buildings include the neo-Renaissance Palacio de los Matrimonios (Paseo de Martí No 302), the streamline-moderne Teatro Fausto (cnr Paseo de Martí & Colón) and the neoclassical Escuela Nacional de Ballet (cnr Paseo de Martí & Trocadero), Alicia Alonso’s famous ballet school.

PARQUE DE LOS ENAMORADOS

Preserved in Parque de los Enamorados (Lovers’ Park), surrounded by streams of speeding traffic, lies a surviving section of the colonial Cárcel or 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 with the park that took its place 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. The beautiful wedding cake–like building (art nouveau with a dash of eclecticism) behind the park, flying the Spanish flag, is the old Palacio Velasco (1912), now the Spanish embassy.

Beyond that is the Memorial a los Estudiantes de Medicina, a fragment of wall encased in marble marking the spot where eight Cuban medical students chosen at random were shot by the Spanish in 1871 as a reprisal for allegedly desecrating the tomb of a Spanish journalist (in fact, they didn’t do it).

Across the Malecón is the picturesque Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta, designed by the Italian military engineer Giovanni Bautista Antonelli and built between 1589 and 1600. During the colonial era a chain was stretched 250m to the castle of El Morro every night to close the harbor mouth to shipping. The castle’s museum (admission CUC$5; 10am-6pm Wed-Sun) was renovated in 2002 and displays artifacts from sunken Spanish treasure fleets, a collection of model ships and information on the slave trade.

On a large traffic island where Prado merges with the Malecón is a rather grand statue of General Máximo Gómez on the right-hand side. Gómez was a war hero from the Dominican Republic who fought tirelessly for Cuban independence in both the 1868 and 1895 conflicts against the Spanish. The impressive statue of him sitting atop a horse was created by Italian artist Aldo Gamba in 1935 and faces heroically out to sea.

Vedado

Vedado is Havana’s commercial hub and archetypal residential district, older than Playa but newer than Centro Habana. The first houses penetrated this formerly protected forest reserve in the 1860s, with the real growth spurt beginning in the 1920s and continuing until the 1950s.

Laid out in a near-perfect grid, Vedado has more of a North American feel than other parts of the Cuban capital, and its small clutch of rascacielos (skyscrapers) – which draw their inspiration from the art-deco giants of Miami and New York – are largely a product of Cuba’s 50-year dance with the US.

During the 1940s and ’50s, Vedado was a louche and tawdry place where Havana’s pre-revolutionary gambling party reached its heady climax. The Hotel Nacional once boasted a Las Vegas–style casino, the ritzy Hotel Riviera was the former stomping ground of influential mobster Meyer Lansky, while the now empty Hotel Capri was masterfully managed by Hollywood actor (and sometime mob associate) George Raft. Everything changed in January 1959 when Fidel Castro rolled into town with his army of scruffy bearded rebels in tow and set up shop on the 24th floor of the spanking new Havana Hilton hotel (promptly renamed Hotel Habana Libre).

ASK A LOCAL

If you get a chance, be sure to wander around El Barrio Chino in Centro Habana. Pass through the giant pagoda-shaped arch behind the Capitolio on Calle Dragones and follow the crowds. Although there aren’t many Chinese living in the neighborhood these days, the neighborhood retains a distinct atmosphere and has lots of decent restaurants on Calle Cuchillo.

Felipe, Havana

LENNON OUTSHINES LENIN

There are three Lenin statues in Havana. The first, sculpted in utilitarian grey granite, dominates leafy Parque Lenin near the airport. The second – a 3m-tall bronze face set in stone – sits atop a small hill in the ramshackle suburb of Regla. Both are of Russian communist icon Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (better known as Lenin) and were constructed during Cuba’s 30-year dalliance with the Soviet Union in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

But it is Havana’s third Lennon statue, a hyper-realistic study of the former Beatle, John, that graces out-of-the-way Parque Lennon (Map; Calles 15 & 17 btwn Calles 6 & 8) in suburban Vedado, which pulls in the lion’s share of the visitors.

Unveiled by Fidel Castro in December 2000 on the 20th anniversary of Lennon’s death, the monument marks one of the leader’s more dramatic policy U-turns. The Beatles’ music was actively discouraged in Cuba in the 1960s for being too ‘decadent.’ But following Lennon’s strong social activism and opposition to US involvement in the Vietnam War, he quickly became a hero among Cuban music fans, causing Castro to belatedly rebrand him as a ‘revolutionary.’

A magnet for souvenir hunters, Lennon’s 21st-century reincarnation has suffered the ignominy of having his glasses stolen so many times that a ‘guard’ has now been employed to keep a regular watch. Hiding the famous spectacles in his trouser pocket, he routinely sneaks up unannounced in front of camera-wielding tourists and deftly places them on the Liverpudlian’s nose.

Today, Vedado boasts a population of approximately 175,000 and its leafy residential pockets are interspersed with myriad theaters, nightspots, paladares and restaurants. Bisected by two wide Parisian-style boulevards, Calle G and Paseo, its geometric grid is embellished by a liberal sprinkling of pleasant parks and the gargantuan Plaza de la Revolución laid out during the Batista era in the 1950s.

HOTEL NACIONAL

Built in 1930 as a copy of the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, the eclectic art-deco/neoclassical Hotel Nacional ( 873-3564; cnr Calles O & 21) is a national monument and one of Havana’s ‘postcard’ sights.

The hotel’s notoriety was cemented in October 1933 when, following a sergeant’s coup by Fulgencio Batista which toppled the regime of Gerardo Machado, 300 aggrieved army officers took refuge in the building hoping to curry favor with resident US ambassador Sumner Wells who was staying there. Much to the officers’ chagrin, Wells promptly left, allowing Batista’s troops to open fire on the hotel killing 14 of them and injuring seven. More were executed later, after they had surrendered.

In December 1946 the hotel gained notoriety of a different kind when US mobsters Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano used it to host the largest ever get-together of the North American Mafia, who gathered here under the guise of a Frank Sinatra concert.

These days the hotel maintains a more reputable face and the once famous casino is long gone, though the kitschy Parisién cabaret is still a popular draw. Nonguests are welcome to admire the Moorish lobby, stroll the breezy grounds overlooking the Malecón and examine the famous photos of past guests on the walls inside.

HOTEL HABANA LIBRE

This classic modernist hotel ( 834-6100; Calle L btwn Calles 23 & 25) – the former Havana Hilton – was commandeered by Castro’s revolutionaries in 1959 just nine months after it had opened, and promptly renamed the Habana Libre. During the first few months of the Revolution, Fidel ruled the country from a luxurious suite on the 24th floor.

A 670-sq-m Venetian tile mural by Amelia Peláez is splashed across the front of the building, while upstairs Alfredo Sosa Bravo’s Carro de la Revolución utilizes 525 ceramic pieces. There are some good shops here and an interesting photo gallery inside displaying snaps of the all-conquering barbudas (literally ‘bearded ones’) lolling around with their guns in the hotel’s lobby in January 1959.

EDIFICIO FOCSA

Unmissable on the Havana skyline, the modernist Edificio Focsa (Focsa building; cnr Calles 17 & M) 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 contains refurbished apartments and – in the shape of top-floor restaurant La Torre – one of the city’s most celebrated eating establishments.

UNIVERSIDAD DE LA HABANA

Founded by Dominican monks in 1728 and secularized in 1842, Havana 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 follow courses in the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, mathematics and economics here.

Perched on a Vedado hill at the top of the famous escalinata (stairway) and Alma Mater statue, the university’s central quadrangle, the Plaza Ignacio Agramonte, displays a tank captured by Castro’s rebels in 1958. Directly in front is the Librería Alma Mater (library) and, to the left, the Museo de Historia Natural Felipe Poey (admission CUC$1; 9am-noon & 1-4pm Mon-Fri Sep-Jul), the oldest museum in Cuba, founded in 1874 by the Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences. Many of the stuffed specimens of Cuban flora and fauna date from the 19th century. Upstairs is the Museo Antropológico Montané (admission CUC$1; 9am-noon & 1-4pm Mon-Fri Sep-Jul), established in 1903, with a rich collection of pre-Columbian Indian artifacts including the wooden 10th-century Ídolo del Tabaco.

At the bottom of the university steps is the Monumento a Julio Antonio Mella (cnr Neptuno & San Lázaro), a monument to the student leader who founded the first Cuban Communist Party in 1925. In 1929 the dictator Machado had Mella assassinated in Mexico City. More interesting than the monument itself are the black-and-white Mella portraits permanently mounted in the wall in the little park across San Lázaro.

MUSEO NAPOLEóNICO

An anomaly – but an interesting one – is the esoteric Museo Napoleónico ( 879-1460; San Miguel No 1159; unguided/guided CUC$3/5; 9am-4:30pm Tue-Sat) situated just outside the university walls. It’s a collection of 7000 objects associated with the life of Napoleon Bonaparte amassed by Cuban sugar baron Julio Lobo and politician Orestes Ferrera. Highlights include sketches of Voltaire, paintings of the battle of Waterloo, china, furniture, an interesting recreation of Napoleon’s study and bedroom, and one of several bronze Napoleonic death masks made two days after the emperor’s death by his personal physician, Dr Francisco Antommarchi.

OTHER MUSEUMS

Two museums further afield in Vedado that are worth checking out if you’re in the neighborhood are the Museo de Artes Decorativas ( 830-9848; Calle 17 No 502 btwn Calles D & E; admission CUC$2; 11am-7pm Tue-Sat), with its fancy rococo, oriental and art-deco baubles, and the Museo de Danza ( 831-2198; Línea No 365; admission CUC$2; 11am-6:30pm Tue-Sat), which collects objects from Cuba’s rich dance history, including some personal effects of Alicia Alonso.

PARQUE ALMENDARES

Running along the banks of the city’s Río Almendares, below the bridge on Calle 23, is this wonderful oasis of green and fresh air in the heart of chaotic Havana. The park was restored in 2003 and they did a beautiful job: benches now line the river promenade, plants grow profusely and there are many facilities here, including an antiquated miniature golf course, the Anfiteatro Parque Almendares (a small outdoor performance space) and a playground. There are several good places to eat.

PLAZA DE LA REVOLUCIóN

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’s ‘new city’ that grew up between 1920 and 1959. As the nexus point of Forestier’s ambitious plan, the square was built on a small hill (the Loma de los Catalanes), in the manner of Paris’ Place de Étoile, with various avenues fanning out toward the Río Almendares, Vedado and the Parque de la Fraternidad in Centro Habana.

ART DECO IN HAVANA

Art deco is a distinctive early-20th century architectural style that reached its zenith in the 1920s and ’30s in structures such as New York’s Chrysler Building. But disguised beneath 50 years of revolutionary dust, Havana hides some of the most quintessential art-deco monuments on the planet.

Financed by a decade-long sugar boom and inspired by the elegant modernist building trends imported into the United States from Europe following WWI, Havana’s 20-year flirtation with art deco began in the late 1920s with a flurry of US-backed construction projects.

The city’s pièce de résistance was – and still is – the opulentEdificio Bacardí, an exotic early incarnation of the art-deco style that was completed in 1929 using polychrome tiles and multitextured bricks to provide a Havana HQ for the world-famous rum dynasty.

More iconic buildings followed, including the 14-story López Serrano building (opposite) in Vedado, one of Havana’s early rascacielos (skyscrapers) that doffed a cap to New York’s Empire State, and the emblematic Hotel Nacional which mixed art deco with flashes of Moorish eclecticism. Other, less lavish but more functional, art-deco creations include the geometric Teatro América Click here, the streamline-moderne Teatro Fausto and the cathedral-like Casa de las Américas Click here.

Surrounded by grey, utilitarian buildings constructed in the late 1950s, the square today is the base of the Cuban government and a place where large-scale political rallies are held. In January 1998, one million people (nearly one-tenth of the Cuban population) crammed into the square to hear Pope Jean Paul II say Mass.

Center-stage is the Memorial a José Martí ( 59-23-47; admission CUC$5; 9:30am-5pm Mon-Sat), which at 138.5m is Havana’s tallest structure. Fronted by an impressive 17m marble statue of a seated Martí in pensive Thinker pose, the memorial houses a museum – the definite word on Martí in Cuba – and a 129m lookout (reached via small CUC$2 lift) with fantastic city views.

The ugly concrete block on the northern side of the Plaza is the Ministerio del Interior, well known for its huge mural of Che Guevara (a copy of Alberto Korda’s famous photograph taken in 1960) with the words Hasta la Victoria Siempre (Always Toward Victory) emblazoned underneath.

On the eastern side is the 1957 Biblioteca Nacional José Martí (admission free; 8am-9:45pm Mon-Sat) with a photo exhibit in the lobby, while on the west is the Teatro Nacional de Cuba (Click here).

Tucked behind the Martí Memorial are the governmental offices housed in the heavily guarded Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba.

Quinta de los Molinos (cnr Av Salvador Allende & Luaces) is the former stately residence of General Máximo Gómez, which sits amid lush botanical gardens on land that once belonged to Havana University. The residence and grounds were halfway through an extensive and long-winded renovation project at the time of writing.

NECRóPOLIS CRISTóBAL COLóN

Declared a national monument in 1987, this cemetery (admission CUC$1; 7am-5pm) is one of Latin America’s most fascinating, renowned for its striking religious iconography and elaborate marble statues. Far from being eerie, a walk through these 56 hallowed hectares can be an educational and emotional stroll through the annals of Cuban history. A guidebook with a detailed map (CUC$5) is for sale at the entrance.

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 (cnr Calles 1 & F), 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 to the many flowers piled on the tomb and the local devotees in attendance. For many years after her death, her heartbroken husband visited the grave several times a day. He always knocked with one of four iron rings on the burial vault and walked away backwards so he could see her for as long as possible. When the bodies were exhumed some years later, Amelia’s body was uncorrupted (a sign of sanctity in the Catholic faith) and the baby, who had been buried at its mother’s feet, was – allegedly – found in her arms. As a result, La Milagrosa became the focus of a huge spiritual cult in Cuba and thousands of people come here annually with gifts in the hope of fulfilling dreams or solving problems. In keeping with tradition, pilgrims knock with the iron ring on the vault and walk away backwards when they leave.

Also worth seeking out is the tomb of Orthodox Party leader Eduardo Chibás (Calle 8 btwn Calles E & F). During the 1940s and early ’50s Chibás was a relentless crusader against political corruption, and as a personal protest he committed suicide during a radio broadcast in 1951. At his burial ceremony a young Orthodox Party activist named Fidel Castro jumped atop Chibás’ grave and made a fiery speech denouncing the old establishment – the political debut of the most influential Cuban of the 20th century.

Also worth looking out for are the graves of novelist Alejo Carpentier (1904–80), scientist Carlos Finlay (1833–1915), the Martyrs of Granma and the Veterans of the Independence Wars.

ALONG THE MALECóN

The Malecón, Havana’s evocative 8km-long sea drive, is one of the city’s most soulful and quintessentially Cuban thoroughfares.

Long a favored meeting place for assorted lovers, philosophers, poets, traveling minstrels, fishermen and wistful Florida-gazers, Malecón’s atmosphere is most potent at sunset when the weak yellow light from creamy Vedado filters like a dim torch onto the buildings of Centro Habana, lending their dilapidated facades a distinctly ethereal quality.

Laid out in the early 1900s as a salubrious oceanside boulevard for Havana’s pleasure-seeking middle classes, the Malecón expanded rapidly eastward in the century’s first decade with a mishmash of eclectic architecture that mixed sturdy neoclassical with whimsical art nouveau. By the 1920s the road had reached the outer limits of burgeoning Vedado and by the early 1950s it had metamorphosed into a busy six-lane traffic highway that carried streams of wave-dodging Buicks and Chevrolets from the grey hulk of the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta to the borders of Miramar.

Today the Malecón remains Havana’s most authentic open-air theater, a real-life ‘cabaret of the poor’ where the whole city comes to meet, greet, date and debate.

Fighting an ongoing battle with the corrosive effects of the ocean, many of the thoroughfare’s magnificent buildings now face decrepitude, demolition or irrevocable damage. To combat the problem, 14 blocks of the Malecón have recently been given special status by the City Historian’s office in an attempt to stop the rot.

The Soviet-era 24-story Hospital Nacional Hermanos Ameijeiras, built in 1980, dominates the center section of the Malecón. Some of its clinics specialize in treating foreigners (Click here). Lying in its shadow is the Monumento a Antonio Maceo, a bronze representation of the mulato general who cut a blazing trail across the entire length of Cuba during the First War of Independence. The nearby 18th-century Torreón de San Lázaro is a watchtower that quickly fell to the British during the invasion of 1762.

West beyond Hotel Nacional is the Monumento a las Víctimas del Maine (1926), monument to the victims of USS Maine, the battleship that blew up mysteriously in Havana harbor in 1898. Once crowned by an American eagle, the monument was decapitated during the 1959 Revolution.

The modern seven-story building with the high security fencing at the western end of this open space is the US Interests Office, first set up by the Carter administration in the late 1970s. Surrounded by hysterical graffiti, the building is the site of some of the worst tit-for-tat finger-wagging on the island. Facing the office front is the Plaza Tribuna Anti-Imperialista, built during the Elián González affair to host major in-your-face protests (earning it the local nickname protestódromo). Concerts, protests and marches – some one-million strong – are still held here.

Tucked away behind the square is the López Serrano building (Calle L btwn Calles 11 & 13), an art-deco tower that looks like the Empire State with the bottom 70 floors chopped off.

Statues of illustrious Latin American leaders line Calle G (Av de los Presidentes), including Salvador Allende (Chile), Benito Juárez (Mexico) and Simón Bolívar. At the top of the avenue is a huge marble memorial to José Miguel Gómez, Cuba’s second president. At the other end, the monument to his predecessor – Cuba’s first president – Tomás Estrada Palma (long considered a US puppet) has been toppled and all that remains are his shoes.

Guarding the entrance to Calle G on the Malecón is the equestrian Monumento a Calixto García (cnr Malecón & Calle G), paying homage to the valiant Cuban general who was prevented by US military leaders in Santiago de Cuba from attending the Spanish surrender in 1898. Twenty-four bronze plaques around the statue provide a history of García’s 30-year struggle for Cuban independence. Just behind the monument is the cathedral-like Casa de las Américas ( 838-2706; www.casa.cult.cu; cnr Calles 3 & G; admission CUC$2; 10am-4:40pm Tue-Sat, 9am-1pm Sun), a cultural institution set up by Moncada survivor Haydee Santamaría in 1959 that awards one of Latin America’s oldest and most prestigious literary prizes. Inside there’s an art gallery and bookstore (Click here).

Cuba has three synagogues servicing a Jewish population of approximately 1:500. The main community center and library is at the Gran Synagoga Bet Shalom (Calle I No 251 btwn Calles 13 & 15), where the friendly staff would be happy to tell interested visitors about the fascinating history of the Jews in Cuba.

Out on a limb but worth a diversion for railway enthusiasts is the Museo del Ferrocarril ( 873-4414; cnr Av de México & Arroyo; 9am-5pm), housed in the old Cristina train station built in 1859. There’s a big collection of signaling and communication gear here plus old locos from various eras including La Junta, dating from 1843. Train rides are available by prior appointment.

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HABANA VIEJA WALKING TOUR

It’s unlikely you’ll get to do both the Habana Vieja and Centro Habana walking tours in a day, unless you hop on some transport halfway through. You can connect with a horse carriage (CUC$10 per hour) on Mercaderes just off Obispo, a coco-taxi anywhere around Plaza de San Francisco de Asís (horse carriages hang out here, too) or a bici-taxi near the Estación Central de Ferrocarriles (Central Train Station).

Plaza de la Catedral is a moveable feast and you can espy most of what’s going on from the lush Restaurante El Patio (1; Click here) before heading into the Catedral de San Cristóbal de La Habana (2; Click here). Track southwest next, past the resident fortune teller and the brightly clad ladies in polka-dot dresses (who’ll plant a kiss on your cheek for a ludicrous tip) and pop into the alleyway on the right housing the Taller Experimental de Gráfica (3; Click here). Here, in what must be Havana’s funkiest art gallery, Pink Floyd meets Jackson Pollack meets Wilfredo Lam with a bit of Picasso thrown in for good measure. Use your excellent map-reading skills to deliver you in front of the gargantuan Museo de la Ciudad (4; Click here) on the western side of Plaza de Armas before the crowds arrive. If they’ve already beaten you to it, take a break outside in the breezy plaza – a bibliophile’s nirvana – with an outdoor book fair if it’s Wednesday, or if it’s not pop into one of Havana’s top bookstores in the Palacio del Segundo Cabo (5; Click here). You might skip the stuffed animals at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural and head straight to the 5th-floor terrace bar at Restaurante La Mina (6; Click here), where the burgers are good and the views even better.

Breaking out of the plaza head south on Obispo past some of Havana’s oldest surviving houses to the corner of Mercaderes. The lurid pastel-pink building on the left is the Hotel Ambos Mundos (7; Click here), where Ernest Hemingway stayed on and off during the 1930s. You can visit room 511 (admission CUC$2; open 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday) where he started writing For Whom the Bell Tolls, or enjoy a few romantic tunes from the resident pianist in the lobby downstairs. A few doors south on Mercaderes is the Maqueta de La Habana Vieja (8; Click here), a darling scale model of everyone’s favorite Unesco World Heritage Site. Continuing straight to the intersection with Obrapía at the next corner, drop into Habana 1791 (9; Click here) where floral fragrances are mixed by hand (you can see all the petals drying in the laboratory out back.) These make a great souvenir for mom or aunty Vera.

WALK FACTS

Start Restaurante El Patio

Finish Taberna de la Muralla

Distance 1.3km

Duration Three hours

Crossing Lamparilla you’ll quickly fall upon the Hostal Condes de Villanueva (10; Click here), an impressively restored Habaguanex hotel with a tranquil inner courtyard and a first-class on-site cigar shop (great presents for uncle Charlie here). Walk past the quirky Museo del Chocolate (11; Click here) – situated ironically on Calle Amargura which translates as ‘Bitterness Street’ – and you’re either ill or in serious denial. It’s a predictably busy melee inside, but you’ll get served eventually and when it comes, the hot chocolate with dip-in biscuits is…well, words cannot describe! Jog left down Amargura as the sugar high kicks in and you’ll hit the warm sea breezes of Plaza de San Francisco de Asís. The western side of the plaza hosts several art galleries (Click here), some with little gardens out back if you need a break. Or splurge with a cappuccino at Café del Oriente (12; Click here).

Train lovers will want to detour half a block south on Oficios and turn left on Churruca to check out the Coche Mambí (13; Click here).

Otherwise, turn right at the corner of Oficios and Brasil and you’re headed toward Plaza Vieja. This plaza is captivating: you’ll get some of the city’s best views from atop the tower housing the cámara oscura (14; Click here) on the northeastern corner. Peek quickly into Café Taberna (15; Click here), a temple to the late Benny Moré and other assorted mambo kings, before nosing through the card collection at Museo de Naipes (16; Click here), on the square’s southeastern corner. Finish the tour with a glass of Havana’s best beer brewed on the premises at Taberna de la Muralla (17; Click here). There’s an outdoor grill here, too, if you’re feeling peckish.

If you want to say goodbye to tourist-brochure Habana Vieja and hello to the real world, continue west on Muralla for one block and then south on Cuba. Here ceilings fall without warning and power outages, water shortages and garbage-strewn streets are the norm. This is one of the roughest parts of the city, so be on your toes. Everyone will see at a glance that you’re a tourist, but try not to look like an easy mark. If in doubt, head back toward the Plaza de Armas. Avoid these areas after dark.

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CENTRO HABANA ARCHITECTURAL TOUR

This leisurely amble through some of Centro Habana’s eclectic architectural sights begins at the end of Paseo de Martí, a salubrious tree-lined avenue known to locals by its old name, El Prado (1; Click here).

Heading south toward Parque Central, the more interesting buildings lie initially to your left. Exhibiting the sharp lines and pure cubist simplicity of depression-era America, the Teatro Fausto (2; Click here), on the corner of Prado and Colón, is an art-deco classic. Still a functioning performance venue for a new generation of budding thespians, the theater is famous for its light plays and hilarious comedy shows.

One block further up on the left, the Casa del Científico (3; Click here), now a budget hotel, is an eclectic masterpiece that was once the residence of former Cuban president, José Miguel Gómez. Furnished with sweeping staircases, elaborate balconies and an eye-catching rooftop lookout, this veritable palace is dripping with diverse architectural influences from art nouveau to Italian Renaissance.

Contrasting sharply with other modern architectural styles on Calle Trocadero, the neo-Moorish Hotel Sevilla (4; Click here) harks back to a bygone age of Spanish stucco and intricate mudéjar craftsmanship. A glimpse inside its gilded lobby with its blue-tinted azulejo tiles and decorative wooden ceilings calls to mind a scene from Granada’s Alhambra, though the hotel itself was built in 1908.

WALK FACTS

Start El Prado

Finish Centro Hispano Americano de Cultura

Distance 4km

Duration Three hours

Turn right on Agramonte and detour down Ánimas for Havana’s – and perhaps Latin America’s – most emblematic art-deco building, the kitschy Edificio Bacardí (5; Click here), a vivid and highly decorative incarnation of this popular interwar architectural genre garnished with granite, Capellanía limestone and multicolored bricks.

On the northwest corner of Parque Central, the royal blue Hotel Telégrafo (6; Click here), renovated in 2002 by the City Historian’s office, retains many features of an earlier hotel constructed on this site in 1886. Take a peep inside its airy lobby to admire the funky furnishings and intricate bar mosaic.

Eclecticism meets neobaroque at the flamboyant Centro Gallego (7; Click here), erected as a Galician social club in 1915 around the existing Teatro Tacón. Facing it across leafy Parque Central is the equally eclectic Centro Asturianas (8; Click here), now part of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, with four separate rooftop lookouts and a richly gilded interior. According to in-the-know locals, these two Spanish social clubs entered into silent competition during the 1910s and ’20s to see who could come up with the most grandiose building. And the winner? You decide.

Centro Havana’s Capitolio Nacional (9; Click here), built between 1926 and 1929, captures Latin America’s neoclassical revival in full swing with sweeping stairways and Doric columns harking back to a purer and more strident Grecian ideal.

Few travelers venture down Calle Cárdenas behind the Fuente de los Indios, but those who do quickly fall upon some of Havana’s most engaging art-nouveau and art-deco townhouses. For pure artistic cheek, check out the pink-and-white wedding cake structure on the southeast corner of Calles Cárdenas & Apodaca (10) before doubling back along Calle Cienfuegos to the Parque de la Fraternidad.

Avenida Simón Bolívar, better known to locals as Calle Reina, is another architectural mish-mash that will leave modern-day urban designers blinking in bewilderment. It also contains one of Havana’s finest Gaudí-esque buildings, an outrageously ornate apartment dwelling on the southwest corner of Av Simón Bolívar & Calle Campanario (11).

Go north on Campanario, right on Salud and left on San Nicolás, and you’re in the Barrio Chino, Havana’s bustling Chinatown. Calle Cuchillo (12) is the main drag here, a short, narrow pedestrian street with plenty of color, but few buildings of architectural note. Merge into Zanja and proceed one block southeast to the next junction. Here on the corner of Calle Zanja & Av de Italia (13) is one of Havana’s zaniest art-deco creations, a narrow turreted townhouse with cubelike balconies and sharply defined vertical and horizontal lines.

Turn left on Av de Italia (Galiano to locals) and stroll three blocks north to the Teatro América (14; Click here), one of a trio of classic art-deco rascacielos (skyscrapers) put up in the 1920s and ’30s to house new shops and apartments. Continue north on Av de Italia for six more blocks and turn right at the Hotel Deauville into the Malecón (15; Click here). Havana’s storm-lashed sea drive is a museum of brilliant eclecticism, with each building differing defiantly from the next. The style reaches its apex two buildings from the junction with Prado (and your starting point) in the faux Egyptian Centro Hispano Americano de Cultura (16; right). Admire the gaudy granite gargoyles before heading off for a well-earned drink.

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COURSES

Aside from Spanish-language courses, Havana offers a large number of learning activities for aspiring students.

Language

Universidad de La Habana (Map; 832-4245, 831-3751; dpg@uh.cu; www.uh.cu; Edificio Varona, 2nd fl, Calle J No 556, Vedado) offers Spanish courses 12 months a year, beginning on the first Monday of each month. Costs start at CUC$100 for 20 hours (one week), including textbooks, and cover all levels from beginners to advanced. You must first sit a placement test to determine your level. Aspiring candidates can sign up in person at the university or reserve beforehand via email or phone.

Other places to check out Spanish courses include Uneac (Map; 832-4551; cnr Calles 17 & H, Vedado), Paradiso (Map; 832-9538; Calle 19 No 560, Vedado) and Cubamar Viajes (Map; 830-1220; www.cubamarviajes.cu; Calle 3 btwn Calle 12 & Malecón, Vedado; 8:30am-5pm Mon-Sat).

Private lessons can be arranged by asking around locally – try your casa particular.

Dance

The easiest way to take a dance class is at the Museo del Ron (Map; 861-8051; San Pedro No 262, Habana Vieja), which offers on-the-spot lessons Monday to Friday at 9am for CUC$10 for the first two hours; it invariably gets good reports. Another option is the Teatro América (Map; 862-5416; Av de Italia No 253 btwn Concordia & Neptuno, Centro Habana), next to the Casa de la Música, which can fix you up with both a class and a partner for CUC$8 per hour.

The Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba (Map; 830-3060; www.folkcuba.cult.cu; Calle 4 No 103 btwn Calzada & Calle 5, Vedado) teaches highly recommended classes in son, salsa, rumba, mambo and more. It also teaches percussion. Classes start on the third Monday in January and the first Monday in July, and cost in the vicinity of CUC$400 to CUC$500 for a 15-day course. An admission test places students in classes of four different levels.

Culture

Centro Hispano Americano de Cultura (Map; 860-6282; Malecón No 17 btwn Paseo de Martí & Capdevila, Centro Habana; 9am-5pm Tue-Sat, 9am-1pm Sun) has all kinds of facilities, including a library, cinema, internet cafe and concert venue. Pick up its excellent monthly brochure and ask about the literature courses. Another place worth approaching is Paradiso (Map; 832-9538; Calle 19 No 560, Vedado), a cultural agency that can arrange courses on history, architecture, music, theater, dance and more. The University of Havana (see left) runs 60-hour courses on Cuban culture for CUC$360.

Yoga

Yoga classes are offered in the garden of the Museo de Artes Decorativas (Map; 830-9848; Calle 17 No 502 btwn Calles D & E, Vedado). Check at the museum for the next session. You may be able to drop in on classes held at the Teatro Nacional de Cuba (Map; 879-6011; cnr Paseo & Calle 39, Vedado). Look for the class schedule by the box office.

Music

Typically, Cubans perform flamenco as well as the Spanish, and you can take dance classes or even enquire about the possibility of guitar lessons at the Centro Andaluz (Map; 863-6745; Paseo de Martí No 104 btwn Genios & Refugio, Centro Habana).

ASK A LOCAL

If you want a more individualized and in-depth city tour, then book with San Cristóbal Agencia de Viajes. It does tours for small groups of people on topics and routes that no other agencies cover. Highly recommended are both its Architectural and Social Projects Tour. The latter takes you around all of the social projects in Habana Vieja that have benefited directly from tourist money.

Geraldo, Havana

Art

The Taller Experimental de Gráfica (Map; 862-0979; fax 824-0391; Callejón del Chorro No 6, Habana Vieja) offers classes in the art of engraving. Individualized instruction lasts one month, during which the student creates an engraving with 15 copies; longer classes can be arranged. The cost is around CUC$250.

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HAVANA FOR CHILDREN

Cuba is a child-friendly country. Waiters will ruffle your kid’s hair almost instinctively, and walking around with your child(ren) anywhere will act as a great leveler and open doors that would otherwise have remained closed. Staying in casas particulares is especially recommended as it provides the opportunity for cross-cultural family exchanges. Vagaries of the Cuban reality will demand patience and creativity from parents (particularly when it comes to food), but there is no lack of fun things to do here. Playa has two of the best attractions: a big aquarium (see Acuario Nacional, Click here), plus a huge new Chinese-built amusement park called Isla del Coco (Map; Av 5 & Calle 112, Playa) with big wheels, bumper cars, the works. There’s another, far inferior, Parque de Diversiones in hard-to-reach Parque Lenin, and a smaller freshwater Aquarivm (Map; 863-9493; Brasil No 9 btwn Mercaderes & Oficios, Habana Vieja; 9am-5:30pm Tue-Sun) in the Old Town. Marina Hemingway has a Bolera (bowling alley; Map; admission CUC$3) and some pinball machines. Head to the beach at Playas del Este to sail, kayak and swim. Young kids will enjoy the inflatable castles and other games at La Maestranza (Map; Av Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Habana Vieja; admission CUC$1; under 4yr only).

Culturally, there are loads of things specifically for kids, including La Colmenita children’s theater Click here and Cinecito with all-kids’ movies all the time.

The ice-cream parlors are a delight for children; you could also visit the scale-model Maqueta in Calle Mercaderes. Even the transport here is kid-friendly: hop in an old Chevy, grab a coco-taxi, commission a horse and cart around Habana Vieja or hire a bici-taxi and discover Havana.

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TOURS

Most general agencies offer the same tours, with some exceptions noted below. The regular tour diet includes a four-hour city tour (CUC$15), a specialized Hemingway tour (from CUC$20), a cañonazo ceremony (shooting of the cannons at the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña; without/with dinner CUC$15/25), a Varadero day trip (from CUC$35) and, of course, excursions to Tropicana Nightclub (starting at CUC$65). Other options include tours to Boca de Guamá crocodile farm (CUC$48), Playas del Este (CUC$20 including lunch), Viñales (CUC$44), Cayo Largo del Sur (CUC$137) and a Trinidad-Cienfuegos overnight (CUC$129). Children usually pay a fraction of the price for adults and solo travelers get socked with a CUC$15 supplement. Note that if the minimum number of people don’t sign up, the trip will be cancelled. Any of the following agencies can arrange these tours and more:

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SLEEPING

With over 3000 private houses letting out rooms, you’ll never struggle to find accommodation in Havana. Casas particulares go for anywhere between CUC$20 and CUC$40 per room, with Centro Habana offering the best bargains. Rock-bottom budget hotels can match casas for price, but not comfort. There’s a dearth of decent hotels in the ‘mid’ price range, while Havana’s top-end hotels are plentiful and offer oodles of atmosphere, even if the overall standards can’t always match facilities elsewhere in the Caribbean.

HAVANA’S FESTIVALS

Through hell and high water, Havana has always clung proudly to its annual calendar of festivals and events, many of which are internationally renowned cultural extravaganzas that draw in movers and shakers from around the globe.

February
  • Feria Internacional del Libro de La Habana Hosted at the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, ExpoCuba and various bookstores around the capital, the Havana Book Festival includes book presentations, special readings and the prestigious Premio Casa de las Américas, an award for outstanding writers of Latin American origin.
April
  • Festival Internacional de Coros Headquartered in the Teatro Amadeo Roldán and held in even-numbered years, the International Choir Festival brings together different choirs from around the world in a series of workshops and performances.
May
  • Cubadisco An annual get-together of foreign and Cuban record producers and companies, Cubadisco hosts music concerts, a trade fair at the Pabexpo conference center and a Grammy-style awards ceremony that encompasses every musical genre from chamber music to pop.
  • Festival Internacional de Poesía de La Habana An opportunity for poets from around the world to convene in Cuba as part of an international cultural exchange, this festival is organized by Uneac (Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba) and bivouacked in the Convento de San Francisco de Asís.
June
  • Festival Internacional ‘Boleros de Oro’ Organized by Uneac, the Boleros de Oro was created by Cuban composer and musicologist José Loyola Fernández in 1986 as a global celebration of this distinctive Cuban musical genre.
August
  • Carnaval de La Havana Parades, dancing, music, colorful costumes and striking effigies; Havana’s annual summer shindig might not be as famous as its more rootsy Santiago de Cuba counterpart, but the celebrations and processions along the Malecón leave plenty of other city carnivals in the shade.
  • Festival Internacional ‘Habana Hip-Hop’ Organized by the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (a youth arm of Uneac), the annual Havana Hip-Hop Festival – headquartered in the rough Havana suburb of Alamar – is a chance for the island’s young musical creators to improvise and swap ideas.
October
  • Festival Internacional de Ballet de La Habana Presided over by long-standing dance diva Alicia Alonso, the International Ballet Festival brings together dance companies, ballerinas and a mixed audience of foreigners and Cubans for a week of expositions, galas and classical and contemporary ballet.
November
  • Jazz Festival Intrinsically linked to Cuban jazz maestro Chucho Valdés, the International Jazz Festival has been around for nearly a quarter of a century. Staged in the Casa de las Américas, along with the Karl Marx, Mella and Amadeo Roldán theaters, the event draws in top figures from around the world for some truly memorable concerts.
December

Many of Havana’s hotels are historic monuments in their own right. Worth a look, even if you’re not staying over, are the Hotel Sevilla and the Saratoga (located in in Centro Habana), the Raquel, the Hostal Condes de Villanueva and the Hotel Florida (all in Habana Vieja), and the iconic Hotel Nacional in Vedado.


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