Cuba - Lonely Planet [77]
Two blocks away, the Colección de Arte Cubano ( 861-3858; Trocadero btwn Agramonte & Av de las Misiones; admission CUC$5; 10am-6pm Tue-Sat, 10am-2pm Sun) displays purely Cuban art and, if you’re pressed for time, is the better of the duo. Works are displayed in chronological order starting on the 3rd floor and are surprisingly varied. Artists to look out for are Guillermo Collazo, considered to be the first truly great Cuban artist, Rafael Blanco with his cartoon-like paintings and sketches, Raúl Martínez, a master of 1960s Cuban pop art, and the Picasso-like Wilfredo Lam.
MUSEO DE LA REVOLUCIóN
The Museo de la Revolución ( 862-4093; Refugio No 1; unguided/guided CUC$4/6, camera extra; 10am-5pm) is housed in the former Presidential Palace, constructed between 1913 and 1920 and used by a string of cash-embezzling Cuban presidents, culminating in Fulgencio Batista. The world-famous Tiffany’s of New York decorated the interior, and the shimmering Salón de los Espejos (Room of Mirrors) was designed to resemble the room of the same name at the Palace of Versailles. In March 1957 the palace was the target of an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Batista led by revolutionary student leader José Antonio Echeverría. The museum itself descends chronologically from the top floor starting with Cuba’s pre-Columbian culture and extending to the present-day socialist regime (with mucho propaganda). The downstairs rooms have some interesting exhibits on the 1953 Moncada attack and the life of Che Guevara, and highlight a Cuban penchant for displaying blood-stained military uniforms. Most of the labels are in English and Spanish. In front of the building is a fragment of the former city wall as well as an SAU-100 tank used by Castro during the 1961 battle of the Bay of Pigs.
In the space behind you’ll find the Pavillón Granma, a memorial to the 18m yacht that carried Fidel Castro and 81 other revolutionaries from Tuxpán, Mexico to Cuba in December 1956. It’s encased in glass and guarded 24 hours a day, presumably to stop anyone from breaking in and making off for Florida in it. The pavilion is surrounded by other vehicles associated with the Revolution and is accessible from the Museo de la Revolución.
PRADO (PASEO DE MARTí)
Construction of this stately European-style boulevard (officially known as Paseo de Martí) – the first street outside the old city walls – began in 1770, and the work was completed in the mid-1830s during the term of Captain General Miguel Tacón (1834–38). The original idea was to create a boulevard as splendid as any found in Paris or Barcelona (Prado owes more than a passing nod to Las Ramblas). The famous bronze lions that guard the central promenade at either end were added in 1928.
Notable Prado buildings include the neo-Renaissance Palacio de los Matrimonios (Paseo de Martí No 302), the streamline-moderne Teatro Fausto (cnr Paseo de Martí & Colón) and the neoclassical Escuela Nacional de Ballet (cnr Paseo de Martí & Trocadero), Alicia Alonso’s famous ballet school.
PARQUE DE LOS ENAMORADOS
Preserved in Parque de los Enamorados (Lovers’ Park), surrounded by streams of speeding traffic, lies a surviving section of the colonial Cárcel or Tacón Prison, built in 1838, where many Cuban patriots including José Martí were imprisoned. A brutal place that sent unfortunate prisoners off to perform hard labor in the nearby San Lázaro quarry, the prison was finally demolished in 1939 with the park that took its place dedicated to the memory of those who had suffered so horribly within its walls. Two tiny cells and an equally minute chapel are all that remain. The beautiful wedding cake–like building (art nouveau with a dash of eclecticism) behind the park, flying the Spanish flag, is the old Palacio Velasco (1912), now the Spanish embassy.
Beyond that is the Memorial a los Estudiantes de Medicina, a fragment of wall encased in marble marking the spot where eight Cuban medical students chosen