Located in the center of the Vedado neighborhood in Havana, housed in an imposing 1930s eclectic architecture overlooking the Malecón esplanade, the legendary National Hotel of Cuba is considered a symbol of Cuban history, culture and identity. It was declared a National Monument and awarded the status of Memory of the World at the National level, granted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 

In the hotel garden you can still see two of the cannons of the Santa Clara Battery that belonged to the Havana Defense System at the end of the Spanish colonial period, and that are now included, along with Old Havana, in the UNESCO World Heritage List, Heritage Sites.

In its 92 years, the majestic National Hotel of Cuba has witnessed some of the most important events in the history of Cuba that link the republican and revolutionary stages, and also has a long list of illustrious guests, including Gary Cooper, the Dukes of Windsor and José Raúl Capablanca in the 1930s, Frank Sinatra and Walt Disney in the 1950s, Yuri Gagarinm, Gabriel García Márquez, Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara in the 1960s, among many others.

From 1979 to the present it has hosted the International Latin American Film Festival, becoming the meeting place for contemporary actors and filmmakers such as Robert de Niro, Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Gloria Pires, among others.