Main Landmarks of Havana

Initially Havana has been established on the Southern Coast of Cuba in 1514 but subsequently it has been moved out to its Northern Coast by 1519.  It has been declared the Capital of the Spanish Colonial Cuba in 1607 and it has been growing since then.  In the early 18th  century it has been the Third Largest City of the Spanish Empire after Mexico City and Lima.

It has a number of Sight-seeing Attractions and its Major Landmarks in this front are Museo de la Revolucion,  Ernest Hemingway Museum, etc.

Museo de la Revolucion                                    

Previously it was the Presidential Palace and Headquarters of the Government of Cuba.  It has now been converted into a Museum show-casing documents, photographs, etc, pertaining to the Cuban Revolution as also those from Colonial Times to present day.  In front of the Museum you can find a Tank used by Fidel Castro in the Battle of Bay of Pigs of 1961.  Behind the Museum you can find a glass-case yacht, named ‘the Granma’ which had brought 82 Visionary Revolutionaries from Mexico in 1956  and the Most Prominent Amongst them were Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, etc, that set the ball of the Revolution of Cuba in motion.

Capitolio Nacional



Built on the pattern of  U. S. Capital in Washington D.C. it is one of the Leading Landmarks and Tourist Attractions of Havana and it had housed the Cuban Congress.  Now it is home to National Library and Academy of Sciences though some of its rooms are  used for state functions.

Habana Vieja or  Old Havana.

Built in 1519 and it was a prominent port of the Colonial Power of Spain. Its Plaza de Arman was the Seat of Power  of Cuba for about 400 years mainly during the Spanish Colonial Era. However today it is home to book markets.  During the Prohibition Era in U.S.A. Americans flocked here for liquor, gambling, etc. Famous American Writer Ernest Hemingway had frequented its La Bodequita Del Medio Bar.

Ernest Hemingway Museum

Ernest Hemingway is an Eminent American Writer.  But since he has spent a lot of time in Cuba to write his famous books of ‘For whom the Bell Tolls’  ‘the Old Man and the Sea’, etc, Cubans believe that he is their adopted  son.  They have therefore restored his home outside Havana  and made it a Museum named after him.  It is kept in the same condition when he lived here. You can therefore find even the olden era typewriter used by him along with his Library of  over 8000 Books.

 Copyright © 2017 by  Davis Akkara