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, 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. 

Calle Cuba No. 610 e / Sol y Luz, Habana Vieja, La Habana

Santa Clara Convent

The Convento de Santa Clara (Santa Clara Convent) is located at the south of Plaza Vieja Square of Havana. This is the biggest and oldest convent in all of Cuba, built between 1638 and 1643, and it is a good example of early Spanish influenced architecture. It was actually the first female convent in the city. The temple stopped serving for religious purposes in 1920, housing for some time the Ministry of Public Works. It is currently part of the restoration team of Old Havana. It being recommended to visit the Colonial-style interior patio, where the first public fountain of the city was found; the cloister, the cells of the nuns and the small cemetery.

Calle Inquisidor e/ Muralla y Teniente Rey, Habana Vieja

Old Square

The neighbors of the town insisted to the town council on the need to create a new public square for their amusement. In 1587, the town council decided to use as a public square the area behind the Convento de San Francisco, which was being built at the time. During the latter decades of the 16th century, this square was called the Plaza Nueva (new square), but from the 18th century onwards, once the Plaza del Cristo had been built, it began to become known as the Plaza Vieja (old square). The most remarkable feature of this square are the buildings around it, with their unquestionable historical and artistic importance of having been the blueprint for a style of architecture which, along with certain developments, subsequently spread throughout the city and characterised the Cuban architecture of the 18th century.

San Ignacio No.61 (Plaza de la Catedral), Habana Vieja, La Habana

Colonial Art Museum

The Museo de Arte Colonial (Colonial Art Museum) is housed within the oldest construction in Old Havana, the Condes de Casa Bayona Palace, a mansion rebuilt in 1720 by Cuban Governor, Don Luis Chachón. The palace’s Classical patio and coffered ceiling made intricately of wood stand out within this construction. The palace boasts a wonderful location, right in front of the San Cristóbal de La Habana Cathedral. This small museum has a Colonial furniture and decorative art exhibition, amongst which will stand out some pottery with Colonial Cuba motifs, as well as several scenes of Colonial dining rooms and a fantastic collection of ornamental flowers.

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