Casa de Don Diego Velázquez

Casa de Don Diego Velázquez Review

Constructed in 1516, this may well be Cuba's oldest house. Diego Velázquez, the Spanish conquistador who founded Santiago de Cuba and was the island's first governor, lived upstairs. Inside you'll find period beds, desks, chests, and other furniture. On the 1st floor is a gold foundry. Memorable are the star-shaped Moorish carvings on the wooden windows and balconies, and the original interior patio with its well and rain-collecting tinajón vessel. An adjacent house is filled with antiques intended to convey the French and English decorative and architectural influences—such as the radial stained glass above the courtyard doors—in the late 19th-century.