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

Nearby attractions

1. Estatua de Cristo

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…

2. Crisis de Octubre

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.

4. Museo El Templete

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…

7. Castillo de la Real Fuerza

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…

8. Plaza de Armas

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 –…