Casa de la Obra Pía

Habana Vieja

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One of the more muscular sights around Calle Mercaderes is this typical Havana aristocratic residence, constructed around 1648 and rebuilt in 1780. Baroque decoration, including an intricate portico made in Cádiz, Spain, covers the facade. The house today functions as a decorative-arts museum, containing a potpourri of period furniture from Chinese to French. It was one of the first structures to be rehabilitated by the City Historian in the early 1980s.

A local embroidery cooperative maintains an HQ here, and you'll spy some old Singer sewing machines not yet requisitioned by Havana's hipsters. Beware: opening hours can be temperamental.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

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    Museo de la Revolución

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    Calle Mercaderes

    0.03 MILES

    Cobbled, car-free Calle Mercaderes (Merchant's Street) has been extensively restored by the Office of the City Historian and is an almost complete replica…

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    1.05 MILES

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    Malecón

    0.77 MILES

    The Malecón, Havana's evocative 7km-long sea drive, is one of the city's most soulful and quintessentially Cuban thoroughfares, and long a favored meeting…

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    Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña

    0.59 MILES

    This 18th-century colossus was built between 1763 and 1774 on a long, exposed ridge on the east side of Havana harbor to fill a weakness in the city's…

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    Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso

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    The neobaroque Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso, erected as a Galician social club between 1907 and 1914, features highly ornate and even exuberant…

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    Capitolio Nacional

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Nearby Habana Vieja attractions

1. Statue of Simón Bolívar

0.02 MILES

The corner of Mercaderes and Obrapía has an international flavor, with a bronze statue of Simón Bolívar, the Latin America liberator, in a small park.

2. Casa de África

0.02 MILES

The Casa de África houses sacred objects relating to Santería, including Abakuá masks, collected by ethnographer Fernando Ortíz.

3. Maqueta de La Habana Vieja

0.03 MILES

Herein lies a 1:500 scale model of Habana Vieja, complete with an authentic soundtrack meant to replicate a day in the life of the city. It's incredibly…

4. Calle Mercaderes

0.03 MILES

Cobbled, car-free Calle Mercaderes (Merchant's Street) has been extensively restored by the Office of the City Historian and is an almost complete replica…

5. Casa de Asia

0.03 MILES

Casa de Asia exhibits a minor cache of paintings and sculpture from China and Japan.

6. Casa de México Benito Juárez

0.03 MILES

The Casa de México Benito Juárez exhibits Mexican folk art and plenty of books but not a lot on Juárez (Mexico’s first indigenous president) himself.

7. Museo de Bomberos

0.04 MILES

This museum contains antediluvian fire equipment dedicated to 19 Havana firefighters who lost their lives in an 1890 railway blaze.

8. Museo de Simón Bolívar

0.04 MILES

A diminutive museum dedicated to Latin America’s great liberator, who remains a perennial hero to most Cubans. Downstairs there are panels containing text…

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