Plaza de la Revolucion

One Of The Largest Civic Squares In The World, Carrying The Steel Che Guevara Mural And A 109 Metre Memorial Tower With The Highest Public Viewpoint In Havana · Havana, La Habana

This is where a million people stood to hear Fidel Castro speak, where three popes have said mass, and where most photographs of revolutionary Cuba were taken. The square itself is an enormous expanse of concrete crossed by traffic, which surprises people. What makes it worth the trip is on three sides of it. The Ministry of the Interior carries a five-storey steel outline of Che Guevara under the words Hasta la Victoria Siempre, drawn from Korda's 1960 photograph, and the building beside it carries Camilo Cienfuegos with Vas bien, Fidel. Behind, a 109-metre star-shaped tower rises over a seventeen-metre marble Jose Marti, and a lift runs to an observation deck at the top - the highest public viewpoint in Havana and the one place you can see how the whole city is laid out, with Vedado, Centro and the harbour all in one frame. Come back after dark, when the murals are floodlit and the square, empty of traffic, finally reads as the stage it was built to be.

Plaza de la Revolucion, Vedado, Havana, Havana, La Habana, Cuba

The square is open at all times and is crossed by traffic. The Jose Marti Memorial, its museum and the lift to the observation deck keep daytime hours with a weekly closing day and a separate charge for the deck. THE WHOLE SQUARE CLOSES to visitors for state events, rallies and official visits, sometimes at short notice.

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