Plaza de Armas

The most important plaza in Habana Vieja, and the oldest, handsome Arms Square was laid out in 1519.  Over the years the Square has housed a church and administrative offices; military parades and musical concerts were held and the gentry would take their evening promenade.  Nowadays the plaza is ringed by stalls selling tatterdemalion antiquarian books.  In the centre of the Square is Parque Cespedes, a park containing shady palms and tall kapok (ceiba) trees.

The somber yet stately Palacio de los Capitanes Generales (Palace of the Captains-Generals) was completed in 1791 and became home to 65 governors of Cuba between 1791 and 1898.  After that it was the U.S. Governor's residence, the early seat of the Cuban government (1902-1920), and Havana's city hall (1920-1967).  The palace is fronted by a loggia supported by Ionic columns and by "cobblewood", laid instead of stone to soften the noise of carriages and thereby lessen the disturbance of the governor's sleep.  The three-storey structure surrounds a courtyard that contains a statue of Christopher Columbus by Italian sculptor Cucchiari.  Today the palace houses the Museo de la Ciudad de la Habana (City of Havana Museum).

Cuba's first flag

The pocket-size Castillo de la Real Fuerzo (Royal Power Castle) was begun in 1558 and completed in 1577.  It's the oldest of the four forts that guarded the New World's important harbour.  It was almost useless from a strategic point of view, being landlocked far from the mouth of the harbour channel and hemmed in by surrounding buildings that would have formed a great impediment to its cannons in any attack.  The governors of Cuba lived here until 1762.  Build in medieval fashion, with walls 6 metres wide and 10 metres tall, the castle forms a square with enormous triangular bulwarks at the corners, their sharp angles slicing the dark water of the moat.

A copy of a Doric temple, El Templete (The Pavilion) was inaugurated in 1828 and stands on the site where the first mass and town council meeting were held in 1519.