Localization

Museo Emilio Bacardí Moreau is located on the Prol de Pio Rosado Street #552 where it connects with the Aguilera Street.

Opening Hours

Monday -Thursday 09:00 - 17:00

Friday 09:00 - 13:00

Saturday 09:00 - 19:00, Sunday 09:00 - 17:00

Admission Details

6 CUP; +1 CUP with guide; +3 CUP photo

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Of all the museums in Santiago de Cuba, by far the most essential is the solemn Museo Emilio Bacardí Moreau (Museo Provincial Bacardí Moreau). It is the first institution of this type opened in Cuba.

In 1899 Emilio Bacardí Moreau, the mayor of Santiago de Cuba and the patriarch of the Bacardí rum dynasty, initiated founding a museum to exhibit his vast collection of artefacts amassed over the previous decades. It was opened with the name of Museum and Public Library of Santiago de Cuba.

Emilio Bacardí Moreau got in touch with the members of the Liberating Army and ex-officials of the Spanish Army and persuaded them to donate the relics of the Independence War, so that the collections of the museum were enriched by these objects. On the other hand, during the War of Independence in 1895, the Spanish government organized the arrival of a collection of European paintings from the Prado Museum in Cuba, to reduce the stressful atmosphere of the contest by such exhibitions and artistic activities. Bacardí succeeded to add some of these paintings to the collections of his museum. The set consisted of paintings by the German neoclassical painter Rossler, by the Italian Guido Reni, and the Spaniards Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and Federico de Madrazo.

Initially the museum was in a small building, inappropriate to store and to protect all the exposed material. The construction of the current museum began in 1922, and it was inaugurated six years later, in 1928. The construction was designed by the renowned architect Carlos Segrera Fernández in 1915. Emilio Bacardí Moreau died before the building was finished, but the economic contribution of his wife Elvira Cape and the support of some other personages were decisive in the completion of the museum. After revolution several restorations were carried out, and at the end of 1980s it became a building administered by the current museography concept, styled along the lines of a traditional European city museum. It was declared National Monument in 1999.

The main façade that looks to the Pio Rosado Street, has an impressive wide staircase that gives access to a portico surrounded by fluted columns of Corinthian style. Three superb doors of precious wood allow the entrance to the interior of the building. The lateral façade that looks to the Aguilera Street is decorated profusely by attached pilasters, spans of windows framed by ledges, cornices, small entablatures, and garlands.