The Museum of the Revolution was created on December 12, 1959, by a decree issued by the then Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Raúl Castro. On January 4, 1974, the former Presidential Palace, in the municipality of Old Havana, was transformed into the Museum.
This beautiful building of eclectic architecture treasures valuable exponents linked to the life and work of major figures of the nation, like Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Antonio Maceo, Máximo Gómez, Frank País García, Ernesto Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, among other personalities of Cuban history.
The dome of the Palace shows beautiful oil paintings, including arches forming four scallops, the authors of which are renowned artists Esteban Valderrama and Mariano Miguel González. Decorations by painter Armando García Menocal can be admired in the Hall of Mirrors, a spectacular mural painting that symbolizes the birth of the Republic.
The central interior patio shows evidence of the more than 300 shots fired by the attackers on the Palace on March 13, 1957, an action that had the objective of executing dictator Fulgencio Batista, as part of the actions of insurrection carried out against the tyrannical regime.
In its more than 30 exhibition halls, the Museum of the Revolution reflects the historical memory of Cuba. Events related to the attacks on the Moncada and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks in Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo, respectively, on July 26, 1953, among others, are presented in the room devoted to National Liberation War.
Among objects on display we find the gown that Fidel Castro wore when, as a lawyer, he assumed his own defense in the trial following the July 26 events, and the typewriter where the manuscripts of his speech History will absolve me were transcribed. In the Camilo-Che memorial hall we find a group of sculptures of hyper-realistic style with figures of these two heroes, who staged invading actions from the Sierra Maestra to the center of the country.
After touring the Palace’s interior patio, giving on to a street, we find the Granma Memorial, opened on the December 1st, 1976, as part of activities to mark the 20th anniversary of the landing of the expedition led by Fidel Castro to start National Liberation War. On a giant display case, we can see the yacht that brought the 82 revolutionaries to Cuban coast, main exponent of the Memorial named after it.
Also on display in that area are other testimonies of the revolutionary struggle culminating in the Monument to the Eternal Heroes of the New Nation, the permanent flame of which was lit by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro on April 19, 1989 and that honors all heroes and martyrs who made and make the existence of the Cuban Revolution possible.
