The San Francisco de Asís Church and Convent is the current scenario of the richest cultural traditions. As the City Historian has said: “to collect, restore, conserve and exhibit are the classic principles that govern there.... so as to save from the offenses of time the endangered heritage.” The construction of the current set dates from 1738, and it replaced a more modest one completed in 1591. Since it was closed to worship in 1841, the building has seen the most diverse uses. After a restoration that brought back its original values in the nineties, the architectural group has harbored, also, a concert hall and the Holy, Sacred and Religious Art museums.Place: Ciudad de La Habana. Old Havana.
The Cannon Blast ceremony is one of the oldest and attractive traditions of Havana. In colonial days, the shots signalled the closing and opening of the gates of the walled city and the rising of the chain across the entrance to the harbour. The tradition of firing a cannon every night at 9:00 pm was kept even after the wall was torn down and is still used for checking your watch.
Currently the venue of the Office of the Historian of Havana, the palace was built in 1776 and has been given several functions: official residence of the Spanish governors, Presidential Palace and Municipal Palace of Havana. The City Museum currently occupies part of the sumptuous halls that exhibit valuable treasures such as: the first Cuban flag, personal effects of the heroes of Cuba: Jose Martí, Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo together with a priceless collection of colonial furniture, carriages and other works of art.
The construction of the largest of all the Spanish military fortresses concluded in 1774 and its presence exerted a deterring effect on the enemies of the country. It occupies an area of 10 hectares and consists of bulwarks, barracks, moats, covered roads, squares and warehouses. On January 3, 1959, Commander Ernesto Che Guevara militarily seized the fortress and established his headquarters there, which is now a museum that exhibits personal documents and valuable testimonies of the Heroic Guerrilla. Every evening the Cannon is Blast Ceremony is held in one of its squares at 9:00 pm.
After more than fifty years of existence, this famous Cuban nightclub is internationally renowned for the virtuosity of its dancers, experience of its artistic directors and skill of its cast (made up by more than 200 professionals) and also because the performance is not presented in a theatre but rather, and true to its slogan, in a "Paradise under the Stars". Numerous prominent Cuban and American artists as well as countless of famed actors, actresses, businessmen and politician were regulars at this cabaret. Its show has toured the leading capitals of the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas.
The internationally renowned Cathedral Square, originally called Plaza de la Ciénaga (Swamp Square) was built on a marshland plagued with underground streams and very close to the bay, whose waters also penetrated the area. Work on the buildings began in the last quarter of the 18th Century. The church of the Jesuits was granted the category of cathedral in 1789. No one has ever referred to it as Swamp Square since. The two hundred year old cathedral stands in a beautiful square. It is open for services and was declared National Monument.
