Havana's distinctive national observatory sits on a hill above the Casablanca neighborhood on the eastern side of the harbor.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
3.83 MILES
Havana's main cemetery (a national monument), one of the largest in the Americas, is renowned for its striking religious iconography and elaborate marble…
0.88 MILES
This emblematic museum is set in the former Presidential Palace, constructed between 1913 and 1920 and used by a string of Cuban presidents, culminating…
0.57 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…
Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla
1 MILES
As important as it is diminutive, Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla, which sits close to the dock in Regla, has a long and colorful history. Inside on…
1.15 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…
Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña
0.49 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…
Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso
1.15 MILES
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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1.22 MILES
The incomparable Capitolio Nacional is Havana's most ambitious and grandiose building, constructed after the post-WWI boom ('Dance of the Millions')…
Nearby attractions
0.11 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…
0.33 MILES
On a grassy knoll outside La Cabaña fort, this outdoor museum of anachronistic-looking rockets and missiles dates to the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis …
3. Museo de Fortificaciones y Armas
0.41 MILES
Inside the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, this armaments museum contains weapons from bows and arrows to giant catapults and cannons.
0.42 MILES
This museum is housed in the tiny neoclassical Doric chapel on the eastern side of Plaza de Armas, and was erected in 1828 at the point where Havana's…
5. Museo de Comandancia del Che
0.42 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…
6. Palacio de Los Condes de Santovenia
0.45 MILES
Lining Plaza de Armas, Los Condes de Santovenia is the former stately palace of the counts of Santovenia and today houses the five-star Hotel Santa Isabel…
0.47 MILES
On the seaward side of Plaza de Armas is one of the oldest existing forts in the Americas, built between 1558 and 1577 on the site of an earlier fort…
0.49 MILES
Havana's oldest square was laid out in the early 1520s, soon after the city's foundation, and was originally known as Plaza de Iglesia after a church –…