Habana Libre

Hotel Tryp Habana Libre
Hotel Tryp Habana Libre. The three balconies which are not glassed in on the left, near the top of the building, are part of the historic Castellana Suite.
Hotel chain	Tryp Hotels
General information
Location	Havana, Cuba
Address	Calle L e/ 23 y 25, Vedado
Opening	March 22, 1958
Owner	Gran Caribe Hotels
Management	Meliá Hotels International
Technical details
Floor count	25
Design and construction
Architect	Welton Becket
Other information
Number of rooms	572
Number of restaurants	4

Hotel Tryp Habana Libre is one of the larger hotels in Cuba, situated in Vedado, Havana. The hotel has 572 rooms in a 25 floor tower at Calle 23 ("La Rampa") and Calle L.

The hotel was built as the Habana Hilton, at a cost of $24 million, under the personal auspices of President Fulgencio Batista. It was constructed as an investment by the pension plan of the Cuban Catering Workers Union, with additional financing from the Banco de Fomento Agricola e Industrial de Cuba (BANFAIC). It was operated by the American Hilton Hotels group and was designed by the well-known Los Angeles architect Welton Becket, who had previously designed the Beverly Hilton for the chain. Becket designed the 27-story Habana Hilton in collaboration with the Havana-based architects Lin Arroyo and Gabriela Menéndez. Arroyo was the Minister of Public Works under Batista. The hotel was constructed by the Frederick Snare Corporation.

The Habana Hilton opened with five days of festivities, from March 18-22, 1958, with Conrad Hilton himself in attendance, accompanied by socialite Virginia Warren, daughter of Chief Justice Earl Warren; renowned Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper and actress Terry Moore. A huge Inaugural Banquet was held on March 19, 1958, attended by Cuba's First Lady, Marta Fernandez de Batista, José Suárez Rivas, Minister of Labor, and other dignitaries. The Habana Hilton was Latin America's tallest and largest hotel. It boasted 630 guest rooms, including 42 suites; an elegant casino; six restaurants and bars, including a Trader Vic's and a rooftop bar; a huge supper club; extensive convention facilities; a shopping arcade; an outdoor pool surrounded by cabanas; and two underground garages with a capacity of 500 cars. The hotel also featured artwork commissioned from some of the most important Cuban modern artists of the day, including an enormous mosaic mural by Amelia Peláez over the main entrance and a tiled wall mural by in the second-floor Antilles Bar overlooking the pool terrace.