Santiago de Cuba is a prestigious city for its rich musical heritage, being the birthplace of trova, bolero and son and a famous center of choral art and street conga with its Chinese cornet and tumbadoras. Thus, Casa de la Trova, that is just 50-60 meters away from Parque Céspedes, is a place where you will listen to the authentic Cuban music by distinguished musicians who have honored Cuban culture.

The history of the Casa de la Trova begins in the 1940s when the poet Virgilio Palais, also a music-loving cigar maker, opens a small business in the house that belonged to the musician Rafael Salcedo de las Cuevas and started to sell drinks, dresses, and food here. Soon, it became a regular meeting space of the friends and the acquaintances of Virgilio who were playing guitar to the customers. Thus, the place was called as El Cafetín de Virgilio. As a result of this place becoming increasingly popular with trova lovers and many musicians playing here, on March 19, 1968, on the anniversary of the birth of the great Pepe Sánchez, the first Casa de la Trova in Cuba was inaugurated here. Pepe Sánchez (1856-1918) is accepted as the father of the Cuban troubadour song and the creator of the Latin American bolero as a musical genre.

The Casa de la Trova, the Musical Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba for some, is the main location of the International Trova Festivals, which are held every year in Santiago de Cuba. The venue is visited by numerous personalities, such as Víctor Jara (Chilean singer-songwriter), Gabriel García Márquez (winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982), Nicolás Guillén (Cuban poet), Mario Benedetti (Uruguayan journalist, writer, and poet), Leo Brouwer (Cuban composer and conductor), Oscar de León (Venezuelan salsa genius), Andy Montañes (Puerto Rican singer-songwriter), Harry Belafonte (American musician) and even Paul McCartney. Some of them have left their signatures on the walls of the premises, as a sign of their stay and with the pride of having been in the same place where glories of Cuban society emerged or have performed music such as Eliades Ochoa, Compay Segundo, Ibrahím Ferrer, Omara Portuondo.

Casa de la Trova is a must-visit place for an ordinary tourist that wants to listen to the authentic Cuban music. Every night indigenous traditional Cuban music is played by a different trova band in the tiny Salón de Los Grandes where the walls are lined with photographs and album sleeves. There are 25 tables in the hall, each of which can seat 4 people. Those who find the hall hot can take a little risk and try the balcony one floor above. The atmosphere in the hall may attract someone who visits Cuba for the first time, but it is necessary to count the negatives such as the amplifiers being turned on full blast, the fact that there are no Cubans in the hall, and the fact that the hall is sometimes unbearable when tourist groups come. Despite all this, ignore these negatives and try to dance salsa.

Entry fee: 150 CUP (incl. one complimentary drink).