MUSEO DE LA REVOLUCIÓN Y MEMORIAL GRANMA

The former presidential palace is now the Museum of the Revolution. Designed by two architects, the Cuban Rodolfo Maruri and the Belgian Paul Belau, it was built between 1912 and 1919. From 1917 onwards, it was used as a residence for presidents. Between its inauguration in 1920 and the revolution in 1959, twenty-one presidents passed through it. This four-story building is built entirely of white stone. The sober elegance of the exterior contrasts with the luxury of the interior, where marble, columns and salons abound, including the Salón de los Espejos, a replica of the famous Versailles gallery, and the Salón Dorado, all in yellow marble.

On March 13, 1957, a group of young revolutionaries attacked the presidential palace with the aim of assassinating President Fulgencio Batista, who had taken power five years earlier in a coup. The operation failed. Batista managed to escape through a secret door in his office. Most of the attackers were killed, while the president of the Student Federation, José Antonio Echeverría, who had successfully participated in the seizure of Radio Reloj to spread the news, was killed by the police as he tried to reach the university. To honor these young revolutionaries, the park in front of the palace was named Parque Trece de Marzo. Fidel Castro, in January 1959, gave his first big speech in Havana on the terrace of the north wing of the palace. He never lived there, probably wanting to distinguish himself from all the presidents who preceded him. But it was the close relationship of this place with recent history that designated it, in 1974, for its new function, that of the Museum of the Revolution.

With documents, photos, objects, maps, models, etc., the Museum of the Revolution offers, on three levels, a complete and chronological vision of the history of the Cubans' struggle for independence. Don't miss it under any circumstances and plan at least 1 hour and a half because of its richness. You will go from the aboriginal rebellions against the conquistadores to the independence wars of the 19th century against the slavery of the Spanish colonial power. The twentieth century is not to be outdone with the highlighting of social and political demands, naturally. Linger on the fascinating history of the labor movement in the 1920s and 1930s and the emergence of the revolutionary process. Don't miss the sections devoted to guerrilla warfare, including the two life-size sculptures of Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara in the Sierra Maestra. The last part of the museum is dedicated to the consolidation of the gains of the 1959 revolution.

You can also visit the presidential office where the different Cuban presidents succeeded each other until Batista.

Then go outside the museum to visit the Granma memorial, where the eponymous yacht on which Fidel Castro and 81 fighters left Mexico to wage the last revolutionary war is on display. The overloaded boat sailed painfully for a week before running aground in Las Coloradas on December 2, 1956. Spotted by Batista's troops, many of them were killed immediately. However, Fidel Castro and some of them managed to reach the Sierra Maestra mountains, home of the insurrectional struggle that ended in victory on January¹, 1959.