Cuba Guide
Santiago de Cuba
Museo de Ambiente Cubano
Address: Parque Céspedes
Opening time: Sept– April daily 9am–4.45pm; May– Aug Mon– Fri 9am–5.45pm, Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 9am–12.45pm
Price: $2CUC, $1CUC extra for each photo taken
Built in 1515 for Diego Velázquez, one of the first conquistadors of Cuba, the magnificent stone edifice on the west side of the park is the oldest residential building in Cuba. It now houses the Museo de Ambiente Cubano, a wonderful collection of early- and late-colonial furniture, curios, weapons and fripperies which offers one of the country's best insights into colonial lifestyles, and is so large that it spills over into the house next door.
Start your tour on the first floor, in the family's living quarters, where you'll find some unusual sixteenth-century pieces. All the windows have heavy wooden lattice balconies and shutters – intended to hide the women, keep the sun out and protect against attack – which lend the house a surprising coolness, as well as the look of an indomitable fortress. The original ceilings, now restored, are lavishly timbered in heavy cedar wood and detailed with crests, while the hallway walls are chased with magnificent Moorish swirls and blocks of muted primary colour in place of wallpaper.
The house was strategically built facing west so that the first-floor windows looked out over the bay, and a cannon is still trained out of the bedroom window. Out in the cool, dark-wood upstairs hallway you can fully appreciate the cleverness of its design in its stark contrast with the dazzling, sunny central courtyard visible below, where there's an elegant central fountain and a huge tinajón water jar from Camagüey. Before you venture downstairs, walk to the end of the hallway to see the remains of the stone furnace that Velázquez built into the corner of the house so that he could smelt his own gold.