Museum of Colonial Art of Havana

Brief information

The Museum of Colonial Art occupies not a purpose-built exhibition building, but the former Casa Bayona, or Palace of the Counts. The building stands opposite Cathedral Square in Old Havana and has been preserved since 1720, so it itself functions as the main exhibit: a museum display is layered onto an old urban house.

Since 1969, colonial art has been displayed here: furniture, tableware, decorative objects, and paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries. Before becoming a museum, the house changed functions; among its former occupants was the Royal College of Notaries of Havana, and part of its furnishings has survived. So here it is important to look not only at the objects in the exhibition, but also at how an old residential building was adapted to present colonial Havana.

What to notice first

It is worth comparing the restrained exterior with the arrangement inside. From the outside, the building is defined by a simple two-story limestone facade, a sturdy portico, balconies of wrought iron and wood, and a roof covered with Creole tiles. These elements do not look like museum decoration: they belong to the house itself, which is older than the current exhibition.

Inside, the main principle for reading the building is the rooms around the central courtyard. Of the nine rooms, eight are used to recreate the everyday life of colonial Havana, so the furniture, tableware, and decorative objects are best perceived together with the layout, rather than separately. The coffered ceiling made of precious woods shows the level of the house’s finish. A separate detail on the facade is the image of the Virgin Mary under the cornice: it was added during the 1931 restoration, and it reminds us that the building was not simply preserved, but was carefully adapted several times for new functions.