Hotels - Armadores de Santander

About  Armadores de Santander

The Hotel Armadores de Santander (which means ‘Shipowners of Santander’) overlooks the port of Havana. The building’s facade, with its stone reliefs of the coat of arms of Santander surrounded by maritime motifs, is wonderfully evocative of the city’s seagoing past.

Havana’s entire raison to be, was the excellence of its natural harbour and its strategic position within the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Nowhere is this easier to appreciate than from a balcony of the Armadores de Santander. The building was commissioned by Don José Cabrero Mier, a native of that city. Many important Havana shipowners maintained offices there, notably Don Ramón Herrera y Sancibrián, Count of Mortera, who after beginning his career as a weaver in the Spanish town of Mortera was driven by poverty to emigrate and try his luck in Cuba. Here he became a hugely successful banker and shipowner. During the Cuban Wars of Independence Don Ramón dedicated a part of his fleet to the service of the Spanish crown, for which he was rewarded with his title. 

The Hotel Armadores de Santander was restored and is run by the Office of the City Historian of Havana, so all its profits are reinvested in the restoration of the city’s historical centre. Anyone keen on maritime history and the comings and goings of ships will love it. From early morning until late at night boats pass to and fro in front of the hotel and the views of the twinkling harbour lights in the evening, and the rising sun gleaming on the smooth water before the morning breeze gets up, are impossibly romantic.

 

Oficios No.13, La Habana

Automobile Museum

The Museo del Automóvil (Automobile Museum) is located in an 1892 Neoclassical construction in Old Havana. This museum is divided in two exposition rooms, which share the entire collection composed by 30 promenade cars, two rigid trucks, a funeral carriage, a special vehicle, seven motorcycles, a semaphore, three fuel pumps and two didactic imitations. This museum has a very well preserved and interesting collection of old automobiles, among which are the noteworthy Thunderbird, Pontiac, and Ford T, among others. The oldest vehicle in the collection dates from 1905, and the latest one comes from 1989. Most of them are North American, although some cars were made in Italy, Spain, Germany and Great Britain. It houses automobiles related to specific people and others antiquated vehicles. An example of this is the Cadillac used by Ernesto Che Guevara when living in Havana, the 1930 Fiat from Flor Loynaz, or the 1959 Oldsmobile used by Commander Camilo Cienfuegos.

Ave Carlos Manuel Céspedes y Santa Clara, Habana Vieja, La Habana

Nuestra Señora de Kazán Orthodox Cathedral

The Catedral Ortodoxa de Nuestra Señora de Kazán (Nuestra Señora de Kazán Orthodox Cathedral), declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO, is one of the newest constructions in Havana, being built in 2000. This Russian Orthodox church is Byzantine in style. It has six beautiful domes, two of which (the biggest and smallest) are gold-sheeted, and the rest are made of bronze. Its staircase entrance calls our attention and is considered the second largest staircase of all outside Russia. From the interior, its golden altar stands out, built in Trinidad and the San Sergio Monastery, Russia; and the murals adorning its walls.

Calle Mercaderes No.120, Habana Vieja, La Habana

Tobacco Museum

The Museo del Tabaco (Tobacco Museum) is located within an 18th century building that belonged to the Bartolomé Luque family, in Calle Mercaderes Street, Old Havana. This museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of collections related to the plantations, production and commercialization of Cuban tobacco. It exhibits a large collection of pipes, leaves and other related items, as well as a collection of lithographic stones and machines of important cigar companies. The museum has a small shop where you’ll be able to get different Havana cigars and items for smokers.

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. 

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