Ratings summary

• Castillo de la Real Fuerza

  4/12/11,

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  MIDPTCAN

  4/5

  Review information

  • Language: gbr
  • Position : With friends

  Pros

  Castillo de La Real Fuerza has now re-opened as a Cuba’s premier maritime museum. (There is also a small naval museum in Cienfuegos.) The museum contains excellent exhibits of Cuba’s maritime past from pre-Columbian days through to the 18th Century with the Royal Shipyard of Havana, one of the largest in the world which built nearly 200 ships for the Spanish Crown. The museum features a huge four metre model of the Santisima Trinidad located on the main floor with a large interactive touch screen which describes life aboard an 18th Century ship-of-the-line in Spanish, French, and English. The original ship was launched into Havana Bay on March 2, 1769 and was the largest ship in the world in the 18th Century, with 140 canons on four gun decks. She was one of four Cuban built ships at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Downstairs you will also find ancient navigational instruments, underwater archaeological artifacts, and gold and silver from the colonial era. Also note the original weathervane, La Giraldilla, while her replica moves in the breeze on the top of the fortress tower which also commands a fantastic view of the city. The second level of the museum hosts many other historic and contemporary models of ships with links to Cuba and is also a good location for viewing the harbour and city skyline.

  Cons

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