After interminable renovations, Havana’s finest art nouveau building once again hosts a hotel. Before you even go inside you can award five stars for the Cueto’s location, at the corner of Plaza Vieja, and its facade, a rippling collection of elegant pillars and curvaceous balconies.
The rooms are more minimalist than art nouveau, although there are subtle curves in the chairs, mirrors and bedheads. The roof terrace has a more flamboyant allure, with its tiled benches and wavy turrets recalling the modernisme of Gaudí’s Barcelona. Services include spa, sundeck and swish new lobby bar.
Conceived in 1906, the building once housed a warehouse and a hat factory before it was rented by José Cueto in the 1920s as the Palacio Vienna hotel. The structure sat empty and unused from the early 1990s until its 2019 reopening.