Hotels - Beltran de Santa Cruz

About  Beltran de Santa Cruz

The mansion restored and converted by the Office of the City Historian of Havana into the Hotel Beltrán de Santa Cruz is only a moment’s walk down San Ignacio Street from one of Old Havana’s most beautiful squares, the Plaza Vieja. The Plaza is the old city’s only purely residential square. It was laid out in the late sixteenth century by the disgruntled citizenry after the commander of the Fuerza Castle had appropriated the Plaza de Armas for military exercises, thus depriving the habaneros of their public promenade-ground.

Plaza Vieja is surrounded by pretty colonial palaces and the Hotel Beltrán de Santa Cruz dates from the same period. It was built by the parents of Gabriel Beltrán de Santa Cruz y Aranda, who in 1770 received the title of Count of Jaruco and set up house nearby in the beautiful palace still known as the Casa de los Condes de Jaruco.

The mansion which was to become the Hotel Beltrán de Santa Cruz subsequently passed to the descendants of one of Havana’s most illustrious citizens, the Marquis of Cárdenas de Monte Hermoso. His guests over the years included the eminent German scientist Baron Alexander von Humboldt and three French princes: the Count of Beaujolais, the Duke of Montpensier and the Duke of Orleans, who later became Louis Philippe I of France.

Hotel Beltrán de Santa Cruz's gracious colonial architecture and interior design, and its proximity to the heart of the city’s historical centre, make it an extremely attractive option for aficionados of history and architecture.

 

Oficios, e/ Amargura y Churruca, Habana Vieja

San Francisco de Asís Church and Convent

The San Francisco de Asís Church and Convent is the current scenario of the richest cultural traditions. This is one of the most extraordinary convent and church complex of the colonial time. The construction of the current set dates from 1738, and it replaced a more modest one completed in 1591. After a restoration in the nineties, the architectural group has harbored, also, a concert hall and the Holy, Sacred and Religious Art museums. The most significant element of the Church is the Tower 42 meters of height, second in altitude at the colonial time. 

Calle Cuba No. 610 e / Sol y Luz, Habana Vieja, La Habana

Santa Clara Convent

The Convento de Santa Clara (Santa Clara Convent) is located at the south of Plaza Vieja Square of Havana. This is the biggest and oldest convent in all of Cuba, built between 1638 and 1643, and it is a good example of early Spanish influenced architecture. It was actually the first female convent in the city. The temple stopped serving for religious purposes in 1920, housing for some time the Ministry of Public Works. It is currently part of the restoration team of Old Havana. It being recommended to visit the Colonial-style interior patio, where the first public fountain of the city was found; the cloister, the cells of the nuns and the small cemetery.

Avenida de México, esq Arroyo, La Habana

Train Museum

The Museo del Ferrocarril (Train Museum) of Havana is located in the old Cristina Station, built in 1859. The museum exhibits a great collection of old locomotives, photographs, and signaling materials, as well as an interesting review of the Cuban trains history. Cuba was one of the first countries in the world to build a rail network, and the trains on the island began to run at least a decade before those in Spain. In this museum you’ll find steam engine locomotives for broad and narrow rails, as well as diesel and electric locomotives. One of the most important items in the museum is the La Junta de Fomento Locomotive, bought in the US in 1842. The museum also houses an area which reproduces the operations room of a train station in the first half of the 20th century; and a Railway Modelling Room which exhibits scale models of stations and railway equipments.

Calle Brasil esq. Compostela, Habana Vieja, La Habana

Farmacia Habanera Museum

A few steps towards Calle Brasil from Plaza del Cristo Square is where the 1886 Museo de la Farmacia Habanera is located. Founded by the Catalonian José Sarrá, it is a shop-museum and nowadays still functions as a pharmacy. The museum displays the history of pharmacies in Havana and their evolution in Cuba. This Pharmacy preserves its original Neo-gothic furniture with Moorish influences, and host a large collection of medicine bottles and medical tools, extracted from archeological excavations in the old city, as well as a book collection with valuable prescriptions for the study of Cuban pharmacopoeia. The museum also exhibits an elegant scale model of an old pharmacy with captivating historical explanations.

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