miramar havana travel photos

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• Havana Region

Miramar Neighborhood

Miramar is best known for its embassies, which line Quinta Avenue (or “Fifth Avenue” in English). With its distinctive tower, the Russian Embassy is one of the most striking. Along Quinta Avenue you’ll also find interesting landmarks like the mansion called Casa de la Tejas Verdes (House of the Green Tiles), and Reloj de Quinta Avenida, a large clock.

In addition to embassies, Quinta Avenida has a lot of the neighborhood’s most interesting buildings. Before Castro’s revolution in the 1950s, this neighborhood became an important residential area for Battista’s upper class. You can still see evidence of Miramar’s high-class past in the area's 20th-century mansions.

While you’re in Miramar you should visit the Museo del Ministerio del Interior, which provides an interesting look into the Cuban prospective on the CIA's attempt to get rid of Fidel Castro. Browse the many shops at the Miramar Trade Center, the largest shopping center in Cuba.

Moments to look forward to

Our journey from havana to trinidad, convertible classic car city tour + colonial walking tour, people and society, bar walking tour and rum museum, havana's fascinating architecture, on the trail of hemingway in cuba, history and culture, latin dance private lessons, afrocuban heritage and regla museum tour, swim in the east beaches, cannon shot beyond the bay, incredible stays, casa olivia.

Casa Olivia is an independent property with five air-conditioned rooms. This casa puts you a short distance from Quinta Avenida (Fifth Avenue), which is one of the loveliest streets in Miramar.

Casa Miramar

Cara Miramar is in a safe and central neighborhood in Miramar.

Casa Maida Y Alberto

Casa Maida Y Alberto offers two air-conditioned rooms in Miramar.

Casa José Mario 3210

Casa José Mario has three air-conditioned rooms in Miramar. This casa has old-world style furniture and artwork.

Casa Galy is a private apartment with an ocean view. It offers three air-conditioned guest rooms.

Arras Miramar 314 Apartamento 2

Arras Miramar is a spacious home, located in a central area. This casa is close by one of the most famous avenues in Havana, Quinta Avenida (Fifth Avenue).

Arras Miramar 314 Apartamento 1

Arras Miramar No. 1 is a one-bedroom apartment in the Playa neighborhood.

Apartamento Maricel

This independent apartment is on a quiet corner of a neighborhood in Miramar. While you stay here you’ll have access to some lovely restaurants, cafés, and nightclubs.

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Havana’s Miramar

By Dmitri Prieto

Miramar is a neighborhood located on the west side of Havana that used to belong to the Municipality of Marianao that now forms part of the capital city.

It is a costal strip that begins west of the Almendares River.  For those who live on the other side it is known as the “after Almendares area.”  It is linked to the rest of the city by two tunnels and an iron bridge for bicycles.

Miramar represents the last stop in the chain of westward movements by the bourgeoisie of Havana in the 19th and 20th century that began from Centro Habana to Cerro, Cerro to Vedado, and Vedado to Miramar.  It is also home to a large portion of Cuban government officials and managers of the post-revolutionary period.

Miramar is today the economic capital of Cuba.  It hosts investment companies, banks, hotels and joint ventures.  Many important decisions are taken here.

In the 1990s, Miramar’s Fifth Avenue was famous for its prostitutes to whom Silvio Rodriguez wrote a song.  Nowadays, the prostitutes are more discreet and use cell phones.

For all of the above, it is the neighborhood of the capital where you can breath the capital (Das Kapital).

Miramar is full of post-modern architecture.  Crystal-shaped buildings of unusual colors -blues, yellows, reds and greens- pop out among the green vegetation.

Their surfaces reflect the environment with the shades provided by their pigments, while faithfully hiding their content.  To mediate between shapes and contents, the buildings sometimes have arches, columns and balusters.

This architecture represents a challenge to people from Havana.  We look at it curiously from the buses.  Of course, to travel by bus is not the same as to travel by car at 100 km/h along Fifth Avenue.

Buses have no access to Fifth Avenue. I am sure that reggaeton singers will start writing songs about Miramar when they get tired of singing about their poor neighborhoods of southern Havana.

To some, Miramar is a symbol of the future of Cuba; to others, it is the remains -somewhat deformed- of its past; and to a third group, a compendium of the possible and impossible delights of the present.

Miramar has an empty and green place called The Ecological Park.  It is a new and little-known park, very close to the Miramar Trade Center. There, a group of activists recently held a meeting of community projects. But Miramar does not like activists. Due to that natural neighborhood dislike, they only managed to gather a small group.  Despite the “ecological” nature of the park, almost nobody went.

Walking down a neighborhood that is a symbol of status becomes a question about the sense of status in Cuba today.  The sense of status and the sense of effort; the sense of status and the sense of opportunities; the sense of status and the sense of life.

There, many young people build up their hopes while architects design new post-modern buildings.  The Russian embassy raises above all the rest.  A work by the last soviet post-classicism period, it is interpreted by many as a syringe. Some say “the syringe used by the Russians to inject communism in Cuba.”  But we know that communism was not a Russian invention.

There is no need for syringes for the new ideologies that spread from Miramar.  Some may say that the techno-bureaucracy and the techno-bourgeoisie do not need ideologies.  But to them we respond: “Some day reggaeton singers will sing about the metropolis of Miramar.”

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Dimitri Prieto-Samsonov

Dmitri Prieto-Samsonov: I define myself as being either Cuban-Russian or Russian-Cuban, indiscriminately. I was born in Moscow in 1972 of a Russian mother and a Cuban father. I lived in the USSR until I was 13, although I was already familiar with Cuba-- where we would take our vacation almost every year. I currently live on the fifth floor of an apartment building in Santa Cruz del Norte, near the sea. I’ve studied biochemistry and law in Havana and anthropology in London. I’ve written about molecular biology, philosophy and anarchism, although I enjoy reading more than writing. I am currently teaching in the Agrarian University of Havana. I believe in God and in the possibility of a free society. Together with other people, that’s what we’re into: breaking down walls and routines.

One thought on “ Havana’s Miramar ”

Dear Dimitri, Your excellent article is a candid glimpse into the reality of modern socialist Cuba. Such a glimpse is of value to socialists in the U.S. b/c we have a difficult task before us. We have to visualize the type of society that we hope to put in place of the present monopolist monster, and win the people to that vision. The glimpse provided in your article helps to give us perspective as to what our own future socialist society ought to look like.

I often think that the prime political task of both socialists in Cuba and socialists in the U.S.–and other monopolist countries–is essentially the same. Your task is devising a workable program for reform; ours is devising a correct political program for workable socialist transformation. When it comes right down to it, the essence is the same. What is “workable” socialism? If you guys can work it out and demonstrate it to the world, just think of how valuable and how revolutionary that would be! Best wishes.

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Miramar, Havana

Discover the luxurious international neighbourhood of miramar in playa, la havana, cuba .

The neighbourhood of Miramar is in the municipality of Playa , which belongs to  Havana . It is famous for its luxurious mansions and hotels, its large and elegant avenues, and also for being the place where consulates and embassies are concentrated.

The history of Miramar is recent because its urbanization and construction began in the 20th century . It was a slow process, which never really ended because houses and other buildings are still being built. It had, in spite of everything, a real estate boom in the '50s when beautiful and luxurious palaces and mansions were built, with swimming pools and large spaces, which would be the home of the most powerful families and individuals of the island.

After the Cuban Revolution, these sumptuous properties were abandoned, and Miramar began to transform into a different kind of neighbourhood, especially after the fall of the USSR. Hotels and consulates began to spring up, as well as restaurants and other leisure areas for tourists, who also preferred Miramar because of its proximity to the Eastern Beaches .

In Miramar,  Fifth Avenue   stands out, with its small but elegant monuments, the National  Aquarium of Cuba , with multiple facilities and marine animals, and the majestic  Church of Jesus of Miramar .

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• Cathedral Square
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• Palace of the Marqués de Arcos
• Marqueses de Aguas Claras Palace
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• Museum of Colonial Art
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• Segundo Cabo Palace
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• La Real Fuerza Castle
• Navigation Museum
• El Templete
• Cuban Natural History Museum
• Mercaderes Street
• Tobacco Museum
• Model Museum of Old Havana
• Asia House Museum
• Simón Bolívar House Museum
• Casa de la Obra Pía Museum
• Museo Casa de África (Africa House Museum)
• Oswaldo Guayasamín House Museum
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• Museo de la Farmacia Habanera (Havana Pharmacy Museum)
• San Francisco de Asís Square
• San Francisco de Asís Church
• Museum of Religious Art and History in Old Havana
• Automobile Museum
• Old Town Square
• Centro de Arte La Casona (La Casona Art Center)
• Fototeca de Cuba (Cuban Photo Library)
• Planetarium of Havana
• Naipes Museum
• Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center
• Casa Alejandro de Humboldt Museum
• Museo del Ron (Rum Museum)
• Nuestra Señora de Kazán Orthodox Cathedral
• Bacardi Building
• Plaza del Cristo
• Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje Church
• Santo Ángel Custodio Church
• Iglesia Parroquial del Espíritu Santo (Church of the Holy Spirit)
• Santa Clara Convent
• Convento de Belén (Belén Convent)
• Iglesia de San Francisco de Paula (San Francisco de Paula Church)
• Casa Natal de José Martí Museum

Parque Histórico Militar Morro Cabaña

• Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes del Morro
• Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña
• Centro Cultural Casa del Che en La Cabaña
• Capitolio Nacional de Cuba
• Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso
• Paseo Martí
• Museo de la Revolución
• Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
• Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás
• San Salvador de la Punta Castle
• Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús
• Hotel Inglaterra
• Havana's Chinatown
• Parque de la Fraternidad
• Fuente de la India
• Monumento a Máximo Gómez
• Casa Museo José Lezama Lima
• Cabaret Parisien
• Hotel Habana Libre
• Cementerio Colón
• Hotel Nacional de Cuba
• University of Havana
• Teatro Nacional de Cuba
• Avenida de los Presidentes
• Revolution Square
• Napoleonic Museum
• Museo Napoleónico
• Casa de las Américas
• Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas
• Parque John Lennon
• Museo de Historia Natural Felipe Poey
• Museo Antropológico Montané
• Monumento a Julio Antonio Mella
• Edificio Focsa
• National Aquarium of Cuba
• Jesus of Miramar Church
• Quinta Avenida

What to see around Havana

• Museo Ernest Hemingway
• Zoológico Nacional de Cuba
• Jardín Botánico Nacional de Cuba
• Parque Lenin
• Playas del Este
• Playa Guanabo
• Statue of Christ of Havana
• Torreón de Cojímar y Monumento a Hemingway
• Santuario de San Lázaro

Other nearby destinations:

• Playa Jibacoa

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Miramar, Havana

Discover the neighborhood of miramar, in playa district, havana. cuba..

Miramar is a quiet residential area in the municipality of Playa ,  Havana . It boasts great avenues and old manor houses from pre-revolutionary times where several consulates and embassies are located. Among these, note the one from Russia, with a gigantic obelisk in Stalin-style dominating the horizon of the avenue.

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Here tend to gather the business travellers from all over the world that attend the important conferences held here. The main artery is the 5th avenue, also known as Quinta Avenida, where most of the important spots are located. Here you can also find some of the most luxurious and lavish hotels in Cuba. Since it is in the coast, also most of the best spas, clubs, and marinas are here. As for leisure, Miramar boasts the best salsa clubs in Cuba, lively discos, good restaurants, and lavish private homes that can be rented. Here, you can also find Cuba’s National Aquarium. This neighborhood also is the setting of important museums worth the visit: the Fundación Naturaleza y el Hombre Museum, the Ministry of the Interior Museum, of the Miniature of the Capital Pavilion. Here, you will also find lush parks and plazas. The best known one is the Almendares park.

How to get here:

The most effective way to get to Playa from Havana is by the Havana Bus Tour . The cost is 5 CUC cents that are deposited in a slot when entering the bus. The buses go over the most important destinations and neighborhoods reaching even Hemingway’s Marina.

If you are departing from Old Havana or Centro Habana , you need to transfer in Plaza de la Revolución Square.

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What to see around

• Cuba National Aquarium
• Iglesia de Jesús de Miramar Church
• National Botanic Garden of Cuba
• National Zoo of Cuba
• Ernest Hemingway’s Museum
• San Lázaro Sanctuary
• Cojímar Turret
• Christ of Havana Statue
• Playa Guanabo Beach

Other nearby destinations:

• San Antonio de los Baños
• Santa María Key

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Trip Cuba is an organization of Cuban agencies whose objectives are:

• ✓ To make Cuba , its culture and its heritage known .
• ✓ To promote sustainable tourism .
• ✓ To support the local economy, prioritizing direct contact with Cuban agencies .

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