This book is an homage to the capital of Cuba in the 500th anniversary of its founding. Settled in 1519, Havana has grown into a magical, cultured, bohemian and splendid city. Through 300 full-color images and interesting historical accounts, the book presents a city of Havana that resisted pirates and buccaneers while collecting and moving across the seas the greatest gold and silver bounties in history, under the protection of galleons and impugnable Spanish fortresses. This Havana has nourished 300 years of University life, is bursting with great avenues, columns and arcades, values its musical creativity, its majestic theaters and a splendor that made it the Paris of the new world. For over five centuries Havana has welcomed and molded the inspirations of Lecuona, Benny Moré, Celia Cruz and Marta Pérez, has been home to Gastón Baquero, Jorge Mañach, Cabrera Infante and Lezama Lima and heeded the voices of José Martí, Varela, Echeverría and Juan Gualberto. It is the greatest of cities, invented and settled by a virtuous ajiaco of whites, blacks, Chinese, mulattos and all the races of the planet. A great city even under the oppression of a political system that has turned it into ruins filled with deterioration, scarcity, hardships, and disappointments.