Museo Municipal Emilio Bacardí Moreau

Top choice in Santiago de Cuba


Narrow Pío Rosado links Calle Heredia to Calle Aguilera and the fabulous Grecian facade of the Bacardí Museum. Founded in 1899 by the rum-magnate war hero and city mayor, Emilio Bacardí y Moreau (the palatial building was built to spec), the museum is one of Cuba's oldest and most eclectic, with a striking collection of Cuban paintings and some absorbing artifacts amassed from Bacardí's travels.

These include an extensive weapons collection, paintings from the Spanish costumbrismo (a 19th-century artistic movement that predates Romanticism) school and the only Egyptian mummy on the island.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Santiago de Cuba attractions

1. Palacio Provincial

0.02 MILES

Situated opposite the Bacardí Museum, the equally Hellenic provincial government seat is another building from Cuba's 20th-century neoclassical revival…

2. Museo del Carnaval

0.04 MILES

A worthwhile museum, this is a quick visit to study the history of Santiago's biggest shindig, the oldest and biggest Carnaval between Río and Mardi Gras…

4. Calle Heredia

0.05 MILES

The music never stops on Calle Heredia, Santiago's most sensuous street and also one of its oldest. Melodies waft from the paint-peeled Casa de Cultura…

5. Casa de la Cultura Miguel Matamoros

0.09 MILES

The Casa de la Cultura Miguel Matamoros, on Parque Céspedes' eastern aspect, is the former San Carlos Club, a social center for wealthy santiagüeros until…

6. Plaza de Dolores

0.1 MILES

East of Parque Céspedes is the pleasant and shady Plaza de Dolores, a former marketplace now dominated by the 18th-century Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de…

7. Ayuntamiento

0.11 MILES

The neoclassical Ayuntamiento was erected in the 1950s using a design from 1783 and was once the site of Hernán Cortés’ mayoral office. Fidel Castro…

8. Parque Céspedes

0.12 MILES

Archetype for romantic Cuban street life, Parque Céspedes is a throbbing kaleidoscope of walking, talking, hustling, flirting, guitar-strumming humanity…