Havana, the capital city of Cuba and the island country’s main urban hub, had been long established as a tourist destination full of diverse spaces, ready to satisfy the demands of foreign and national travelers.
Backed by a five-century history, the city stands out in the island's recreational scenery for its ample range of cultural, historical and beach offers.
Initially christened as San Cristóbal de La Habana, the city is one of the most authentic exponents of the island's colonial architecture, which became especially outstanding in the late 16th century.
At the time Havana was also called the Antemural City of the West Indies and Key to the New World. Today it stands in the fashion of a singular living museum of the most diverse architectural styles, reflecting the city’s development stages.
Nowadays, Havana boasts an extensive hotel infrastructure that includes facilities such as the Tryp Habana Libre, open for the last 62 years, since 1958.
Initially administered by the American chain Hilton, it is now under the management of the Spanish Sol Meliá, being a Cuban property since 1959.
Inaugurated on March 19, 1958, the hotel sets the pace of a modern capital, as most central and tallest hostelry in the city, at one end of La Rampa, the most bustling street in the area.
The 27-story building was jointly designed by the American architecture studio Welton Beckett and Associates and the Cuban firm Menéndez-Arroyo, on a 28 million US dollar investment on construction and equipment.
After going through a capital renovation, it boasts 572 rooms and a whole variety of astronomic services, nightclubs and meeting rooms, as well as special history and privacy.
The establishment has rooms of about 50 square meters, a balcony and views of the city or the sea, and a series of amenities typical of a five-star hotel.
Among the novelties, there is a frontal mural by the Cuban painter Amelia Peláez and works in its rooms by artists Alfredo Sosa Bravo and René Portocarrero, among others.
Havana proudly displays a system of fortresses, with the emblematic Castle of Los Tres Reyes del Morro and nine large buildings that together constitute the most notable complex of its kind in Hispanic America.
Among these works, the Castillo de la Real Fuerza (completed around 1577) paved the way on the continent to Renaissance design in military constructions, with a style that prevailed in Spain at the time of the Catholic Kings, also deemed Elizabethan.
Also, about 140 of the buildings located in the historic center of the capital have an origin that dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, another 200 to the 18th and more than 460 to the 19th, thus forming a full mix of attractions for the more demanding tastes.
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