Page 14 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

12 ❯❯ Top 10 Cuba Highlights

La Habana Vieja, Havana

With almost 1,000 buildings of historic importance, this intimate
quarter is perhaps the largest and most complete colonial complex
in the Americas. Like a peopled museum full of animated street
life, Old Havana boasts an astonishing wealth of castles, churches,
convents, palaces, and other important buildings spanning five
centuries and subject to an ongoing restoration program. Easily
walkable, the cobbled plazas and the narrow
streets of La Habana Vieja exude charm.
Catedral de 3
La Habana
Dominating a cobbled
plaza, this cathe dral
(right) is graced by
an exquisite Baroque
facade with asym-
metrical bell towers.
The restored inte rior
features fine murals.
Calle
4
Mercaderes
This cobbled street links
Calle Obispo to Plaza
Vieja. Lined with tiny
museums, boutiques,
colonial mansions, and
Palacio de
1 other attractions, it offers
los Capitanes
hours of exploration
Generales (see p74).
This former governor’s
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
pal ace (above) houses 5
the City Museum. The fine arts museum is housed in two
Displays of colonial buildings and displays
treasures in lavishly both an inter-
decorated hallways national collec tion
and chambers recall the and Cuban art
height of Spanish power. (right) (see p74).
Plaza de San Francisco
2
This harborfront plaza is dominated by the
Basilica Menor de San Francisco de Asís, which
holds a museum and is a venue for concerts.
Plaza Vieja
6
The fountain at the
heart of Old Havana’s
largest plaza (left) is
an exact replica of the
17th-century original.
Sites here include a
brew-pub, a boutique,
and intimate museums
and galleries (see p73).

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