Here is the courtyard of the building I talked about yesterday. I knew it was a museum but not much else. As you can see, the architecture is as lovely or even lovelier than the exterior facade. I made the first photo at 40mm, so it’s about the same as a typical person’s perspective. The stonework and architecture balance with the interior plantings and the statue. The statue was key to identifying the building.

Here is a close-up of the statue at 70mm. Do you recognize the man? I thought it looked like Christopher Columbus. On a lark, I typed in the following prompt into ChatGPT. “What is the name of the museum in Havana, Cuba that has a statue of Christopher Columbus in the courtyard?”. A bingo, it came up with the answer. I even asked it for pictures of the place, and it matched what I have.

This is how ChatGPT responded: “The museum is the Museo de la Ciudad (Museum of the City of Havana), housed in the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, on Plaza de Armas in Old Havana”.

The building itself, Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, has a long history. It was the residence of the Spanish colonial governors from 1776 to 1898. It later served as the Headquarters of the U.S. military administration, the Presidential Palace of the Cuban Republic, and the City Hall. Finally, it became a museum in 1968.

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