The Hemingway House Outside of Havana Wins Nationwide Monument Award

The following is an unedited version of "Hemingway's House in Cuba Receives Restoration Award," by Cecelia Crespo, and it can be found here. The photographs were all taken by RHTRAVELER in 2003 and 2007, and they are in Flickrs Creative Commons.

Hemingway, in His Seafaring and Deep Sea Fishing Days

"Finca Vigia, the Cuban house where U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway lived for almost 20 years and wrote some of his novels, received the National Award for the Preservation and Restoration of Monuments.

The house, located in the village of San Francisco de Paula, 15 kilometers southeast of Havana, was turned into the Hemingway Museum in 1964 and it recreates details of the daily and literary life of the renowned writer during his stays in Cuba.

Hemingway house, by RHTRAVELER

The building does not go unnoticed to the eye of the passers-by as it is located in a hill surrounded by luxuriant vegetation, where the colonial Spanish army set barracks for surveillance purposes late in the 19th century; hence its name: La Vigia (The Watchtower).

Hemingway house1, by RHTRAVELER

After a complete restoration, the Museum again opens its doors to the public who can appreciate interesting details of the private and everyday life of one of the most talented writers of the 20th century who also received a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Traditionally visited by hundreds of national and foreign tourists, the place is very peculiar due to the lush vegetation surrounding it and the big house that still keeps the original atmosphere with the dissimilar belongings that accompanied Hemingway until July 1960, when he left the island not suspecting that he would never come back again.

Hemingway house2, by RHTRAVELER

Outstanding is the white color of the walls and also the posters and painting with taurine motifs made by French painter Roberto Domingo, as well as the heads of the animals Hemingway hunted during his two safaris to Africa, an experience that he described in some of his novels.

Hemingway house (Living room), by RHTRAVELER

A collection of 8,000 books make up the large library, right next to a spacious room for guests and a big dining room with Spanish furniture.

On a shelf, in front of one window, there is Hemingways last photo with his wife in this house in 1960. Every detail has been preserved in this restoration with the desire to keep this cultural and architectural jewel as the magnificent legacy left by Hemingway to the Cubans, which was donated to Cuba by his wife, Mary Wehls, in August 1961.

Hemingway house 3, by RHTRAVELER

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