Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Neptuno Street, Havana, in the 1950s – and as it looks today. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

Havana on its 500th birthday – then and now

This article is more than 4 years old
Neptuno Street, Havana, in the 1950s – and as it looks today. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

The Cuban government is planning a jubilee week as the capital city celebrates the anniversary of its birth, with hundreds of events at restored monuments and historic sites, a visit from the Spanish royal family and fireworks over the Malecon seaside promenade. Archive photographs show how much, and how little, the capital has changed

by Fototeca Oficina del Historiador/Adalberto Roque/AFP
The Revolution Museum

The Revolution Museum, which was inaugurated in 1920 as the presidential palace, before becoming a museum in 1974

The Payret cinema

The Payret cinema was a bar in the 1940s

Neptuno Street

Neptuno Street as it looked 70 years ago, and today

The Actualidades cinema

The Actualidades cinema, the country’s first, opened in 1906. It is currently closed and in need of repair

Malecon Avenue

Malecon Avenue

El Templete

El Templete is a small Greco-Roman temple that was erected in 1827 and declared a World Heritage Site in 1982

El Lucero cafe

El Lucero cafe

Reina street

Reina Street

The Zaratoga Hotel

The Zaratoga hotel

The entrance to Obispo Street

The entrance to Obispo Street

Most viewed

Most viewed