Miramar, Havana
Miramar is a residential district of the municipality of Playa, in the city of Havana.
Overview
Many embassies, including the landmark Russian Embassy, are located in Miramar - in particular on Quinta Avenida before called Avenida de las Américas.Prior to the Revolution, the neighborhood was home to many of Havana's upscale residents. There are many large houses and mansions here. This district and the Country Club were the most glamorous spaces in the Havana of the 50s. There are also some of Havana's more modern hotels, such as Hotel Melia Habana, Oasis Panorama Hotel and Occidental Miramar, beaches and private rental houses. Also located here is the International School of Havana.
Since the late 1990s, several office blocks have been built in a complex called Centro de Negocios Miramar - the "Miramar Trade Center".
Points of interest
Quinta Avenida">Quinta Avenida (Havana)">Quinta Avenida (Fifth Avenue)
- Casa de Alberto de Armas, a restored Beaux-Arts mansion at Calle 2 by architect Jorge Luis Echarte
- Reloj de Quinta Avenida at Calle 10, a large clock erected in 1924 in the central median
- Museum of the Ministry of the Interior at Calle 12
- Casa del Habano
- Teatro Miramar at Calle 94
- Parque de los Ahorcados, between Calles 24 and 26, "shaded by massive jagüey trees, seemingly supported by their aerial roots dangling like cascades of water"
- Karl Marx Theater in the park
- Plaza Emiliano Zapata, with a life-size stone statue of Zapata, Mexico’s revolutionary hero
- Rosita De Hornedo Hotel, now the CIMEX corporation, located in first avenue between 0 and 2.
- Iglesia de Santa Rita de Casia — a modernist church from 1942 which mixes neocolonial and modern features by architect Victor Morales. Features a modernist statue of Santa Rita by Rita Longa
- Gracious mansions, many of them foreign embassies
- Iglesia San Antonio de Padua — Modernist-style Romanesque church by architects Eloy Norman and Salvador Figueras
- Russian Embassy by architects Alexander Rochegov and Basilio Piasecki
- Occidental Miramar hotel, site of the former Peruvian Embassy
- Hotel Barceló Habana Ciudad
- Miramar Trade Center
- Iglesia de Jesús de Miramar, built in 1953 with a magnificent organ with 5,000 pipes. The restored church features 14 splendid oversize paintings of the Stations of the Cross by Spanish artist César Hombrados Oñativa.
- El Ajibe, a restaurant visited by Anthony Bourdain on his Travel Channel program "No Reservations".
- Old Miramar Yacht Club, now a club for Cuban air force officers. The picture at right is wrong. For pictures of the Club go to miramaryachtclub.com.
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Parks
- Parque Ecológico Monte Barreto, 9th Avenue west of Calle 70
- Parque de los Ahorcados, Quinta Avenida between Calles 24 and 26
Education
The International School of Havana, an English-language international school, is in Miramar.The Centro Educativo Español de La Habana, a Spanish-language international school, is in Miramar.
Notable people
- Cristina Saralegui was born in Miramar, Havana.