The Palace of the Second Lieutenant, during the time when Cuba was a Spanish colony, was dedicated to commercial purposes.
Several centuries later, it has been converted into one of the most advanced museums in Cuba.
Today, the upper floors of the building are undergoing restoration. But on the ground floor, you will find The Timeline. These days, its visit is free of charge.
Let's see what it has to offer...
We discovered this museum by chance.
My girlfriend stopped to get some water, next to one of the windows. Without realizing it, we were inside the Palace, asking if we could go in.
The museum welcomes you with a counter where there are some ancient weapons and where they were found. Then you move on to a room where only a globe is exhibited.
On the globe, the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas are marked. This is considered the beginning of the history of Cuba.
Around it, there are some infographics with a bit of history about the first inhabitants of Cuba (the so-called Indians).
Then we move on to what constitutes the main attraction of this floor.
For me, this place is a Museum and an art gallery, all in one room.
In the middle of the room, we have a tubular structure, about 15 meters long.
Inside, it contains a great part of the history of humanity.
On one wall, the entire history of Cuba since 1492 (when Columbus arrived)
On the other wall, a large part of Universal history, with an emphasis on European history.
As a history buff, I loved this format. The part about my country, I knew it by heart.
But seeing iconic photos of Universal History made me remember events that I had forgotten.
I remembered when I was a child, a museum like this would have helped me a lot in my history classes, which were often very tedious.
My girlfriend was fascinated by the Cuba section. Both walls are full of illustrations, if history bores you, this format will make you adore it.
We loved it. So much so that we have visited it several times since we discovered it.
The same structure, but on the outside, is full of illustrations of famous paintings.
On one wall, illustrations of Cuban authors, which are part of our history. On the other end, famous paintings such as Las Meninas.
A two-in-one. It's a stroke of luck to be able to visit this museum.
The history would not be complete if we did not pay tribute to how our ancestors arrived. Immigration is part of what we are.
This is reflected in a room adjacent to the Timeline.
In this room, we have the replica of a cabin of a Spanish merchant ship.
The curious thing about this replica is not how exact it is, but that they have put a screen on the hatch that is synchronized with the local time (according to the museum guide)
That is, if the weather outside is good, it will show a calm sea. The day I went, it had both. At the moment we entered, it rained and I saw how the screen changed to a rather rough sea. I found it very interesting.
In the same room, there are some recreations of the posters that promoted trips to Cuba from Spain. The most famous ones are the trips of the Galicians and the Canarians.
When Columbus arrived, the island already had inhabitants. They arrived in the same way as Columbus, in somewhat more rustic and smaller vessels.
In this room, they also pay tribute to them with a fairly accurate replica of what the canoes of these natives were like.
At the end of the first room, you can learn about the history of José Martí in an interactive way and a bit more about the Cuban Revolution. But it's not one of the rooms we enjoyed the most, so we haven't gone that far.
This museum has received praise from nationals and foreigners, not only for the use of new technologies, but for the didactic way of making known the history of the world and of the country in particular.
The truth is that a visit to this museum should be a must if you come to Havana.
We loved visiting it, it made me connect with my past. Sometimes the current situations, the difficulties, make us forget our roots, all the history we carry.
An addition that this place has is the Palace where it is located. When it is finished, it will be a delight to visit such a construction.
This place, in less than 20 meters, reminds you that we are the sum of traditions, peoples, migrants, sacrifices, history.
From being a place I knew by mistake, it became a place I visit all the time.
Do you have any museums in your city with this theme? Do you have a favorite museum?
Let me know in the comments, it will be a pleasure to read you.
