Havana

Havana is the capital city of Cuba. Cuba is an island in the Caribbean Sea.

Havana is beside the sea. It has a big harbor where ships come in.

Havana is the capital of Cuba, on the island's northwest coast. Cuba's National Statistics Office estimated that 2,137,847 people lived in the city at the end of 2022; the 2012 census had counted 2,106,146.

The Spanish founded Havana around 1519 beside a bay. Its old center, Old Havana, is full of plazas, old monuments and houses with balconies, and together with the fortresses around the harbor it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Havana, Cuba's capital, had an estimated 2,137,847 residents on 31 December 2022, according to the National Statistics Office (ONEI), compared with 2,106,146 at the 2012 census and 2,201,610 at the 2002 census. Old Havana itself, the municipality of La Habana Vieja, had about 79,800 in the 2022 estimate.

UNESCO describes the city as founded about 1519 on Cuba's northwestern shore and as a sprawling metropolis whose old center keeps a mix of Baroque and neoclassical monuments and an even ensemble of houses with arcades, balconies, wrought-iron gates and inner courtyards. It calls Old Havana the most impressive historic city center in the Caribbean and one of the most notable in the Americas.

Big stone forts stand by the harbor. Long ago, they kept the city and its ships safe.

One fort sits on each side of the narrow way into the bay.

Ships enter Havana Bay through a narrow channel, and stone fortresses stand on both sides. Morro Castle and La Punta Castle guard the entrance. Farther in, the huge fortress of La Cabaña sits on the east side, one of the largest built in the Americas during colonial times.

On the west side stands the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, begun in 1558, one of the oldest colonial fortresses in the Americas. The photo shows another landmark of the old town: the stone front of Havana Cathedral, with its two bell towers.

UNESCO's listing includes the defensive network built from the 16th to the 19th centuries, which contains some of the oldest and largest stone fortifications surviving in the Americas. Morro Castle (Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro) and the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta guard the entrance to the narrow channel into Havana Bay. The Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, one of the largest colonial fortresses in the Americas, stands on the channel's east side; the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, begun in 1558 and one of the oldest, on its west side. Smaller works include towers, bastions and surviving stretches of the old city wall.

The photo shows the facade of Havana Cathedral on the Plaza de la Catedral, one of the outstanding buildings UNESCO names around Old Havana's plazas; Wikidata gives 1777 for its construction.

Ships sail into Havana through a narrow gap between two forts.

In the old town, the streets are narrow and the squares are wide.

Every ship that enters Havana Bay passes through a narrow channel guarded by fortresses on both sides.

Old Havana is bounded by where the old city walls used to stand. Inside, narrow streets lead between the plazas, still following the town's early plan. Beyond the old center, the city spreads out across a much bigger area, as the photo of its rooftops shows.

Havana Bay opens to the sea through a narrow entrance canal, with Morro and La Punta at its mouth and La Cabaña and the Real Fuerza along its sides, as UNESCO describes. UNESCO traces the city's historic fortunes to the bay's role as a compulsory stop on the route to the New World.

Old Havana is defined by the extent of the former city walls and keeps its early urban pattern: narrow streets, lined with buildings in more popular or traditional styles, connect five large plazas. The historic center covers about 214 hectares. Beyond it, UNESCO notes, Havana has become a sprawling metropolis.

Old Havana has five big squares. Each one looks different.

Many old houses have balconies and pretty iron gates. Some have a courtyard inside.

Old Havana is built around five large plazas, and each has its own character: the Plaza de Armas, Plaza Vieja, Plaza de San Francisco, Plaza del Cristo and Plaza de la Catedral. Around them stand the cathedral, an old convent and grand palaces.

Along the streets between them are rows of older houses with arcades, balconies, wrought-iron gates and inner courtyards, many of them worn by time.

UNESCO describes Old Havana's five large plazas, each with its own architectural character: Plaza de Armas, Plaza Vieja, Plaza de San Francisco, Plaza del Cristo and Plaza de la Catedral. Around them stand outstanding buildings, among them Havana Cathedral, the former Convent of San Francisco de Asís, the Palacio del Segundo Cabo and the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales.

Between these Baroque and neoclassical monuments runs a homogeneous ensemble of private houses with arcades, balconies, wrought-iron gates and internal courtyards, many 'evocatively time-worn', in UNESCO's words. UNESCO adds that much of Old Havana's built fabric is in disrepair, from decay, neglect and the weather.