On a grassy knoll outside La Cabaña fort, this outdoor museum of anachronistic-looking rockets and missiles dates to the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis (known as the October Crisis in Cuba) in 1962. The exhibits were installed here on the 50th anniversary of what almost became WWIII, and include a Soviet Sopka rocket, several historical panels and the tattered wing of an American U2 spy plane shot down over eastern Cuba on October 27, 1962.

The pilot of the plane, American Rudolf Anderson, was the only person killed in combat during the missile crisis.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Museo de Fortificaciones y Armas

0.12 MILES

Inside the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, this armaments museum contains weapons from bows and arrows to giant catapults and cannons.

2. Museo de Comandancia del Che

0.15 MILES

Probably the most interesting of the several museums spread around Havana's two eastern forts is this diminutive but nonetheless riveting exposé of the…

3. Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña

0.19 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…

4. Estatua de Cristo

0.27 MILES

This impossible-to-miss statue on a rise on the harbor's eastern side was created by Jilma Madera in 1958. It was promised to President Batista by his…

5. Observatorio Nacional

0.33 MILES

Havana's distinctive national observatory sits on a hill above the Casablanca neighborhood on the eastern side of the harbor.

6. Batería de la Divina Pastora

0.35 MILES

A military emplacement that once protected Havana harbor from its position at the foot of the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña.

8. Parque Maestranza

0.44 MILES

Overlooking the harbor is this small-scale Cuban-style playground (for children aged four to 12), with inflatable castles and other games.

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "cuba/havana/regla-guanabacoa/attractions/crisis-de-octubre/a/poi-sig/1619545/1304633",
      "position": "superzone"
    }