Ron Havana Club is not produced in this building, but the main attraction of the place is to give information to the visitors about the historical development of the worldwide known rum factory by offering a real-time experience of the rum-making process in sequential order at first hand.

HISTORY

The building was built in the period of 1772 and 1780, and its first owner was the couple Don José Fajardo Covarrubias and Doña Josefa Montalvo, a renowned family of the Havanan society of the time. Their son, the wealthy coffee grower Don Juan Fajardo Covarrubias y Montalvo, decorated the house with beautiful mural paintings. The second bishop of Havana, Juan José Díaz de Espada y Fernández de Landa or just Bishop Espada (1756-1832), rented the building to convert it into Episcopal Palace, and made some changes in it. Twenty years later the building passed again to the hands of its former owner, in whose time the roof with tiles were replaced by the flat roof and the wooden balcony railings with the iron one. In 1892 the mansion was bought by Don Ramón de Herrera, a wealthy Spaniard that held the title of Third Count of the Mortera. He installed the offices of his company Compañía Naviera in the building. After the republic, the offices of different companies and commercial firms occupied the building, but the ownership of the Count of La Mortera continued until the revolution in 1959. After the revolution it became the property of the state and it served as Mambisa Navigation Company (1961), Academy of Sciences (1965), and National Council of Culture (1968). In 1990, after a restoration in that all the additions that were undermining the original image of the building, were removed, it was handed over to the Ministry of Culture under the name of House of the Young Creator, dedicated entirely to cultural purposes. Since 2000 it is the Havana Club Rum Museum.

THE ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

The building has an impressive entrance and a spectacular patio that has two arches at both sides, supported by broad stone columns. The area is enriched by rich vegetations, such as ferns, yuccas and potted palms. The building is decorated in authentic and classic style. It has wide arches, strong columns, high strut and wide walls.

The history of sugarcane begins with the Austronesian and Papuan people that live in an area extending from Madagascar in the west to the Papua New Guinea in the east, including Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Polynesia and Malay Peninsula. In the prehistoric times, this ancient crop was spread via Austronesian sailors. It was introduced to the southern China and India by the same way around 1.200 to 1.000 BC. Sugarcane was used primarily as animal food for domesticated pigs.

The earliest known use of sugarcane in the production of crystalline sugar began in India between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. The Persians encountered its value and started with its agriculture. The Arab merchants began to sugar trade from India, so that the sugarcane-based sugar production spread to the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Egypt, North Africa and Andalusia.

The sugarcane was brought to the Americas by the Spanish from the fields in the Canary Islands, and by the Portuguese from the fields in the Madeira islands. It was Christopher Columbus that first brought sugarcane stalks from the Canary Islands to the Americas during his second voyage. He brought them initially to Hispaniola (today’s Dominican Republic and Haiti) and then to other regions of the Americas, including Cuba.

In colonial times sugar (often in the form of molasses) was shipped from the Caribbean to Europe or New England, where it was used to make rum. The profits from the sale of sugar were then used to purchase manufactured goods, which were then shipped to West Africa, where they were bartered for slaves. The slaves were then brought back to the Caribbean to be sold to sugar planters. The profits from the sale of the slaves were then used to buy more sugar, which was shipped to Europe.

Sugarcane easily adapted to Cuba’s climate and soil and acquired a unique aroma that distinguishes it from other sugarcane grown in other places making it the prime and irreplaceable material in rum making. Havana Club is a brand of Cuban rum, established in 1878 by the Spanish José Arechabala Aldama. It is considered one of the best rum brands in the world. Its factory is located in the municipality of Santa Cruz del Norte, province of Mayabeque, east of Havana. It was nationalized in 1960.