Page 121 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

FUR THER AFIELD  119

0 Finca La Vigía
Calle Vigía y Stheinhard, San
Francisco de Paula, Havana.
£ San Francisco de Paula.
Tel 7692 0176. Open 10am–
4:30pm Mon–Sat. & 8 = -
Note: fee for photography may apply.
At San Francisco de Paula, on
the outskirts of Havana, is the
only residence Ernest Heming-
way ever had outside the US.
He lived here, in the periods
between his various foreign
trips, for almost 20 years.
The villa, built in 1887 to a
design by Catalan architect
Miguel Pascual y Baguer, was
bought by Hemingway in 1940.
It was made a public museum
in 1962, as soon as news of the
writer’s suicide in the US reached
Cuba. To protect the interior,
visitors are not allowed inside,
however the rooms can be
viewed through the windows
and doors to the garden, which
are thrown open but roped off,
except on rainy days.
Everything in the villa is in the
same meticulous order it was
in when Hemingway lived here. The façade of Finca La Vigía, surrounded by tropical vegetation
There is his library with its more
than 9,000 books; various Pilar, the author’s fishing boat, Gregorio Fuentes. During
hunting trophies from African which was transferred from World War II he used it to
safaris hanging in the living Cojímar to the museum and patrol the sea north of Cuba,
room; personal possessions, such placed in a specially built on the lookout for Nazi
as his weapons and typewriter, pavilion in the former tennis submarines that were trying
and valuable artworks, including court. The Pilar was a com- to sink ships laden with sugar
a ceramic plate by Picasso. fortable and fast boat made intended for the Allied troops.
Two curious features in the of black American oak, and
garden are the pet cemetery the author loved ploughing Environs
(Hemingway had about 50 cats through the waves on fishing Near Hemingway’s villa is the
during his lifetime) and the expeditions with his friend village of Santa María del
Rosario, founded in 1732
by Count Don José Bayona y
Chacón on the estate of his
large sugar factory. A real gem
here is the church of the same
name (it is also known as
Catedral de los Campos de
Cuba), notable for its splendid
mudéjar ceilings.
The church was designed
in 1760–66 by architect José
Perera. The austere façade is
reminiscent of the Spanish
missions in the western US,
while the interior con tains some
unusually lavish elements, such
as the extravagantly gilded high
altar, and paintings attributed
to Nicolás de la Escalera, one
The living room of Hemingway’s villa, with hunting trophies on the walls of Cuba’s early artists.
For hotels and restaurants in this area see p258 and p272

118-119_EW_Cuba.indd 119 14/02/17 11:36 am