Sevilla Hotel in Old Havana

Have you thought about sleeping in a room where Al Capone slept or where, just a while later, another mafia character like Santo Trafficante did? Or stay in the same rooms once used by Josephine Baker, Imperio Argentina and Libertad Lamarque? Lola Flores, Tongolele, Tin Tan, Pérez Prado? Hugo del Carril or Jorge Negrete? The painter David Alfaro Siqueiros and the chess player José Raúl Capablanca…?

All these possibilities exist in the Hotel Sevilla, one of the oldest hotels in Cuba. Here part of the story of “Our Man in Havana” takes place, which is one of Graham Greene’s well-known novels; who was also a guest of this hotel. So were Georges Simenon, creator of the famous literary character Inspector Maigret, and Ernest Hemingway, winner of the Novel Prize for Literature. Enrico Caruso and Rubén Darío also stayed at this hotel on their way through Havana, as did Mary Pickford, to whom the hotel dedicated a cocktail that remains an emblem of the institution.

Thanks to the illustrious personalities who used its facilities, the Sevilla is a hotel with history. That and he has already completed 100 years of service. It was the first large luxury hotel on the island, and today, a four-star hotel, for its comfort and the excellence of its services, it continues to be among the favorite hotel options for a pleasant vacation in Cuba. Also contributing to its preference is its beautiful architecture, which replicates the entrance to the Patio de los Leones in the Alhambra, in Granada, Andalusia, with a profusion of arches, columns and mosaics. And also its excellent location, right next to the famous Paseo del Prado and a few hundred meters from the Malecón de La Habana, at the entrance to the Historic Center of the city, and a few steps from famous museums and great Cuban bars and restaurants. capital.

Hotel Sevilla in Old Havana This hotel has gone through several stages since its foundation. The Sevilla hotel was opened in 1908. If you take a look at the image of its main façade, you can see that its original owner was a Spaniard with the surname González. Shortly thereafter, this person sold the hotel to an American company that later sold it to the Biltmore Company, also with American capital. Americans have always known how to get the most out of a business, and being aware of the growth of tourism on the island in the second decade of the last century, they made an effort to develop their facilities.

They bought a 10-storey building that had been built next to the Plaza hotel, with its façade facing the Paseo del Prado. This building was initially designed to house a hospital but was never opened because the owners had difficulty obtaining, from the Havana City Council, the declaration of the area as a zone of silence, a prerequisite for establishing a medical institution. The American company then merged the new building with the existing hotel and reopened in 1924 as the Seville Biltmore Hotel. That is why, even today, there are two styles in the construction aspect of the hotel, an attractive old style that can be seen on Trocadero street, and a more modern one that looks out onto Paseo del Prado.

The hotel enjoyed the tourist boom of the time, which, as we said in a previous article, was supported by national and international situations that benefited the Hotel Plaza like no other hotel in Havana at that time, since its owners also managed the Hippodrome. and the National Park. Casino.

Cuba was a paradise for visitors interested in fun and entertainment, exposing their luck in games and bets, but also according to traveler chronicles of the time, some peculiarities of the Cuban idiosyncrasy made possible the tourist boom. In a book about our “tourist” attractions: “At cocktail hour in Cuba”, published in 1928, its author, Basil Woon, made these libertine suggestions to potential travelers: “You can drink all you want, try your luck in the lottery and lose what you think is reasonable in the casino. In Havana it is not necessary to carry a marriage certificate if traveling as a couple and the visitor can look provocatively at the beautiful Cuban ladies since looking in Cuba is a compliment and not a crime”.

In 1939, the Hotel Sevilla was in the hands of Amleto Battisti, a Uruguayan of Italian origin who was the head of one of the four families of the Havana Mafia Empire. He turned the hotel into one of the paradises of the Havana game until 1959.

With the victory of the revolutionary movement in January of the same year, Don Amleto, who also controlled heroin trafficking to the United States, left his hotel on the day of victory to take refuge in the Uruguayan embassy. He had as luggage several large suitcases full of money. The Hotel Sevilla then was destined exclusively for local tourism until 1989, when it closed its doors for a major remodeling, reopening its doors in 1993 with the splendor that has always characterized it, but with the comforts of modernity.

I could tell stories of the many famous people who stayed at the Hotel Sevilla, but in this article I will only refer to one of them:

The great Josephine Baker stayed at the Hotel Sevilla when she first arrived in Havana in 1950, to perform for several nights at the Teatro América. The Baker was initially seduced by the Hotel Nacional de Cuba as an ideal place to stay. But incredibly, being considered the flagship of all Cuban hotels, she was not accepted because of the black color of her skin. Faced with this situation, Amleto Battisti, who recognized the fame that accompanied the world star, and knowing that her presence in her facilities would be excellent publicity for the hotel, offered to host her and serve her like a queen. The day after she arrived at the Hotel Sevilla she began her performances at the Teatro América. Despite her 54 years, she looked lithe and beautiful. She just… that she danced with her clothes on. Still, it is said that the lines of people who crowded outside the theater to see it exceeded the previous lines for other shows in Havana. The Sevilla was the hotel that saved Havana from not appreciating, in situ, the immense value of a living legend of world art, Josephine Baker.