The World Heritage Committee has inscribed 721 properties on the World Heritage List (554 cultural, 144 natural and 23 mixed in 124 States Parties). The List, arranged alphabetically by nominating State Party, is current as of December 2001. The list will be updated following the next meeting of the Committee in June 2002. The complete list is at UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site

Almost 600 years of history Make “La Habana Vieja” A World Heritage site

The Ambos Mundos Hotel in La Habana Vieja is the place where Ernest Hemingway lived as he wrote For Whom The Bell Tolls.. The hotel remains a lively draw for tourists and visitors.

Cubans call their capital city “La Habana,” the “la” emphatically underlining that this place sits at the heart of their history and culture.  That legacy manifests itself most clearly in the section called “La Habana Vieja” -- Old Havana – an area of baroque and neoclassical monuments and streetscapes so impressive that UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1982.

A visit to its highlights will give any traveler a clear view of the almost 600 years of Cuban history that have passed since the European discovery of America. They begin with the imposing Castillo del Morro, a fortress, built on a headland that towers at one end of Havana’s harbor, and continue through the Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Cuba’s oldest building); the 18^th-century Cathedral; the Plaza de Armas, flanked by museums; and the former Convento de Santa Clara, a nunnery built in 1644 and now being restored.

There is also the national Capitol, styled after the U.S. Capitol, a cigar factory and various other parks, plazas, churches and palaces, all either restored or undergoing restoration, and all of them accessible to travelers for modest fees.

The Museo de la Revolución exhibits artifacts from the insurgency that overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and established Fidel Castro’s one-party state. The building used to be the presidential palace. Highlights of the collection include the yacht Granma, from which Castro launched his revolution in 1956, as well as military equipment used in the revolution and against American forces at the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.

Juxtaposed with the brightly painted facades of La Habana Vieja are the brightly painted bodies of old American cars from the 1940s and 50s, lovingly and creatively maintained by drivers who are kept from access to spare parts by the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

Beyond the buildings of specific national importance that have been well maintained, travelers looking for a sparkling, smart tourist area will be disappointed. La Habana Vieja, as well as the rest of Havana and Cuba, has taken a pounding, thanks to the decrepit economic theories of Cuba’s ruling elite. Many buildings show the effects of weathering and lapsed maintenance, and off the beaten path it’s not unusual to encounter piles of rubble where the facades of buildings collapsed into the street.

Still, this is a place that, despite all of the weathering, neglect and bumbling bureaucrats arrayed against it, can be an intensively lively, romantic scene. The arcades, wrought-iron balconies and gates, and quiet interior courtyards evoke the graciousness of old Spain.  — Patrick Totty