Havana sits on Cuba's northwestern coast at 23.1136° N, 82.3666° W, where the Gulf of Mexico meets the Straits of Florida. The city occupies 728.26 square kilometers and holds 2.13 million residents according to Cuba's 2022 census, making it the most populous city in the Caribbean. The natural harbor of Havana Bay divides the metropolitan area into three primary sections: Havana Vieja on the western shore, Centro Habana extending inland, and the eastern municipalities across the bay including Regla and Guanabacoa. The Almendares River creates a secondary geographical division, separating the central districts from the western neighborhood of Miramar and Marianao. The city sits at near sea level with minimal topographical variation, creating a flat urban landscape that extends approximately 15 kilometers east to west along the coast.
Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded San Cristóbal de la Habana in 1519 on its current location after two earlier settlement attempts at different sites along Cuba's southern coast between 1514 and 1519. The natural deep-water harbor made Havana the assembly point for Spanish treasure fleets departing for Europe, and in 1607 the Spanish Crown officially designated it the capital of Cuba. The city became the third-largest in the Spanish Americas by 1750, with a population exceeding 70,000. British forces captured Havana in 1762 during the Seven Years' War, occupying it for eleven months before Spain regained control through the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The brief British period opened the port to unrestricted international trade, fundamentally altering the city's economic trajectory. Throughout the 19th century, Havana became the wealthiest city in the Caribbean through sugar and tobacco exports, with wealthy merchants constructing elaborate neoclassical and baroque buildings that still define the cityscape. The Spanish-American War ended Spanish control in 1898, and the United States maintained significant political and economic influence through the 1959 revolution. Fidel Castro declared Havana the capital of revolutionary Cuba on January 8, 1959, after entering the city following Fulgencio Batista's departure.
The historic core of Habana Vieja received UNESCO World Heritage designation in 1982, recognizing 3,370 structures within a 2.14 square kilometer area bounded by the colonial fortifications. The district contains the densest concentration of Spanish colonial architecture in the Americas, with buildings dating from the 16th through 19th centuries. Plaza de Armas, established in 1519, serves as the oldest public square, surrounded by the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales (1791), the Castillo de la Real Fuerza (1577), and El Templete (1828), which marks the city's founding location. Plaza de la Catedral contains the Catedral de La Habana, constructed between 1748 and 1777 in Cuban baroque style with an asymmetrical facade created by towers of differing widths. The Plaza Vieja, laid out in 1559, functioned as the city's main marketplace until the 19th century and now contains buildings spanning four centuries, including Casa del Conde de San Juan de Jaruco (1738) and the Cámara Oscura tower (2001) offering 360-degree city views. Plaza de San Francisco de Asís centers on the Basílica Menor de San Francisco de Asís, originally built in 1591 and reconstructed in baroque style between 1719 and 1738, now functioning as a concert hall after religious use ended following the 1841 secularization. The Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad, established under Eusebio Leal Spengler's direction in 1981, has restored approximately 68% of Habana Vieja's structures through revenue generated from tourism enterprises within the zone.
The fortification system protecting Havana harbor represents the most extensive Spanish military architecture in the Americas. Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, constructed between 1589 and 1630 on the rocky promontory forming the harbor's eastern entrance, rises 45 meters above sea level with walls reaching 3 meters thick. The lighthouse added in 1844 stands 25 meters tall and remains operational. Across the harbor channel, Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, built between 1763 and 1774 following the British occupation, stretches 700 meters along the coastline and ranks as the largest Spanish colonial fortress in the Americas. The construction required 4,000 workers and consumed the budget equivalent to paving Havana's streets entirely in silver, prompting King Carlos III to reportedly ask for a telescope to see such an expensive structure from Madrid. The fortress walls reach 12 meters high in sections, with the complex covering 10 hectares. The cañonazo de las nueve ceremony fires a cannon at 9:00 PM nightly from La Cabaña, recreating the colonial-era signal that marked the closing of the city gates and raising of the harbor chain. The Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta, completed in 1600 on the western harbor entrance, formed the third point of the triangular defense system with a chain stretching across to El Morro during threats.
The Malecón extends 8 kilometers along Havana's northern coastline from the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta westward to the Almendares River mouth. Construction began in 1901 under U.S. provisional governor Major General Leonard Wood and proceeded in sections through 1952. The seawall stands 5 meters wide at its base with a raised walkway varying from 1 to 3 meters above sea level depending on the coastal elevation. Hurricane-driven waves regularly crash over the wall, particularly during winter northern fronts, with salt spray affecting buildings up to 100 meters inland. The Malecón functions as Havana's primary social gathering space, with residents sitting on the wall throughout the day and particularly dense crowds during weekend evenings. The seawall's concrete shows continuous deterioration from wave action, with emergency repairs following major storms and ongoing maintenance by municipal crews.
The Capitolio Nacional, completed in 1929 after three years of construction, rises 91.73 meters at its dome's peak, making it the third-tallest building in Havana. The structure measures 207 meters long and 92 meters wide, covering 38,088 square meters across four floors. President Gerardo Machado commissioned the building to house Cuba's Congress, with construction costing $17 million. The dome's interior displays a 17-meter diameter statue, La República, sculpted by Angelo Zanelli, which at 49 tons ranks as one of the world's largest indoor bronze statues. A 25-carat diamond embedded in the floor beneath the dome marked Kilometer Zero for Cuban highway measurements until its theft in 1946, with a replica now occupying that position. The National Assembly of People's Power met here until 1959, when the building became the Cuban Academy of Sciences headquarters and later the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment. A $60 million restoration between 2010 and 2019 returned the building to its original function as the National Assembly seat.
Plaza de la Revolución occupies 72,000 square meters in the Vedado district, designed by French landscape architect Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier in 1920 and constructed between 1952 and 1958 under Batista. The José Martí Memorial tower rises 109 meters with a 18-meter marble statue of the independence leader at its base, making it Havana's tallest structure and Cuba's highest lookout point. The memorial's construction used 52,000 blocks of marble from the Isla de la Juventud and 3,500 tons of steel, with completion in 1958. The tower's interior museum displays Martí artifacts and documents across five floors, with the observation deck at 110 meters accessible by elevator. The Ministry of Interior building on the plaza's north side features the 5-story steel outline portrait of Che Guevara created by artist Enrique Ávila in 1995, measuring approximately 8 meters high. The adjacent Ministry of Communications building displays a similar-scale portrait of Camilo Cienfuegos, completed in 2009. Pope John Paul II celebrated mass here before 1 million attendees in January 1998, Pope Benedict XVI spoke to similar crowds in March 2012, and Pope Francis held mass in September 2015.