Habana Libre
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The Habana Libre hotel is one of the larger hotels in Cuba, situated in Vedado, Havana. The hotel has 572 rooms in a 25 floor tower at Calle 23 ("La Rampa") and Calle L.
Opened in March 1958 as the Habana Hilton, the hotel was Latin America's tallest and largest hotel. The hotel was built as an investment by the pension plan of the union of Cuban restaurant workers and operated by the American Hilton Hotels group. It boasted a Trader Vic's, as well as a casino, supper club, rooftop bar and pool. Due to its size the building is cited among the architect circles as one good example of integration in the surroundings, opposite to the Yara Hotel for instance that is only a block away from Habana Libre.
Following the entry of Fidel Castro into Havana, nine months later, the hotel was briefly his headquarters. It remained a Hilton well into 1960, until relations between the US and Cuba, already strained, were finally cut. The hotel was nationalized by the Cuban government and then renamed Hotel Habana Libre.
In the late 1990s the Cuban state (partially) sold the hotel to the Spanish Sol Melia chain. It was placed in their Tryp division of urban hotels and was renamed Hotel Tryp Habana Libre. Years later, an superb original mural made by the iconic Amelia Peláez that had been in the main entrance was restored and put back into place after decades of being hidden from public view.
[edit] External links
- Sol Meliá Cuba - Habana Libre - on site Sol Meliá Cuba
- Sol Melia - Habana Libre - Hotel official web site
- Hotel Habana Libre .com - hotel fansite
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