Hotels - Palacio O'Farrill

About  Palacio O'Farrill

The Hotel Palacio O’Farrill is a terrifically grand neoclassical mansion standing on the corner of Cuba & Chacon Streets near the port of Havana. Its owner, Don Ricardo O’Farrill y O’Daly, made his fortune in the slave trade, & owned several large sugar mills. The entrance hall of his house is almost ludicrously impressive, with a toweringly high ceiling, & vast iron-studded polished mahogany doors. Also not to be missed, are two small but elegant black marble seats in the hallway or the idiosyncratically double-scrolled archway leading into the courtyard.

The general aesthetic of the O’Farrill is Cuban colonial; Hibernian it is not, but as if to rectify the situation the colour green has been applied with a liberal hand throughout the establishment. On occasion enthusiasm for the Emerald Isle seems to run amuck, such as in the stinging viridian in the stained glass fanlights & the startling lime-green walls of the sitting rooms in the suites.

The faces of visitors drinking pre-lunch cocktails in the courtyard also acquire an interesting hue from the greenish tinge of the canopy which shades them from the sun. However the restaurant and snack bar break with the chromatic norm, & the latter, decorated in mahogany with terracotta furnishings, proves welcomingly cool relief after a morning of sightseeing in what can sometimes feel like the blast furnace, albeit the very picturesque one, of Old Havana.

A particularly attractive feature of the Palacio O'Farrill building is the way in which the mahogany detailing has been left unpainted, being simply varnished to show the beauty of the wood. Throughout the building there are pieces of good old Cuban furniture as well as numerous reproductions, but the latter are so well made in exact imitation of traditional pieces that the overall impression is one of pleasing visual harmony.

 

Calle San Ignacio 54 (Plaza de la Catedral), Habana Vieja, La Habana

El Patio Restaurant (Marquis of Aguas Claras Palace)

This is a 1760 Baroque palace venerated for the great beauty of its Andalusian patio. It has a fountain surrounded by tropical vegetation where you will find several tortoises. Before the Revolution, this monumental building was the headquarters of the Industrial Bank; nowadays it houses the El Patio Restaurant. Although it offers traditional Cuban food, it speciality is meat and crustaceous, dishes as the Cathedral Mixed Grill (a varied grill) and skewers of lobsters and shrimps. The bar serves a collection of wines beers, rums and cocktails. It is currently possible to buy souvenirs in the craftworks shop located in the former Casa de Baños House, on the western side of the Cathedral square.

Calle Oficios, esq Muralla, Plaza de San Francisco de Asís, La Habana

Alejandro de Humboldt Museum

The Museo Alejandro de Humboldt (Alejandro de Humboldt Museum) is located in a Colonial house in Plaza de San Francisco de Asís Square, in Old Havana, Cuba. Its name comes from the German scientist Alejandro von Humboldt, who is seen as the second person to discover Cuba. This is a scientific museum dedicated to biology and its main objective is to preserve research and promote the historical Humboldt’s legacy. This institution enhances the labor of Cuban and international personalities whose contributions are considered relevant for the development of culture in general terms. It exhibits the historical trajectory of the scientific and botanic data he compiled throughout the island at the beginning of the 19th century, as well as a botanic exhibition which is fundamentally made up of ferns. In this museum there is a perfect copy of a Kritosaurus skeleton found in the desert and donated by the Mexican government, as well as an enormous Pterosaur skeleton, which is around 10 meters length. The House also has a conference room with capacity for 100 persons and a specialized library on German literature.

Calle Inquisidor e/ Muralla y Teniente Rey, Habana Vieja

Old Square

The neighbors of the town insisted to the town council on the need to create a new public square for their amusement. In 1587, the town council decided to use as a public square the area behind the Convento de San Francisco, which was being built at the time. During the latter decades of the 16th century, this square was called the Plaza Nueva (new square), but from the 18th century onwards, once the Plaza del Cristo had been built, it began to become known as the Plaza Vieja (old square). The most remarkable feature of this square are the buildings around it, with their unquestionable historical and artistic importance of having been the blueprint for a style of architecture which, along with certain developments, subsequently spread throughout the city and characterised the Cuban architecture of the 18th century.

Trocadero e/ Zulueta y Monserrate, Habana

National Museum of Fine Arts

The National Museum of Fine Arts houses Cuba's most important art collections, as well as paintings dating from the 18th to the 21st century and ancient art. The exhibition areas treasure collections of Cuban and European painting, which harmonize with works of art of ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome. Its valuable assets are divided into two buildings: Cuban Art, just a short walk from the Museum of the Revolution, and Universal Art, in the magnificent building that was once occupied by the Asturian Centre, opposite the Central Park.

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