The Hotel Sevilla is a historic hotel in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

History

The Hotel Sevilla opened on March 22, 1908. It was a four-story

Moorish Revival Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centur ...

structure, designed by architects Arellano y Mendoza on, located on Calle Trocadero, next to the

Paseo del Prado The Paseo del Prado is one of the main boulevards in Madrid, Spain. It runs north–south between the Plaza de Cibeles and the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V (also known as Plaza de Atocha), with the Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo (the location ...

, between the

Malecón A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...

and Parque Central. The Sevilla was bought by

John McEntee Bowman John McEntee Bowman (1875 – October 28, 1931) was a Canadian-born businessman, American hotelier and horseman, and the founding president of Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corp.- - Biography Born in Toronto, Ontario, Bowman began his American worki ...

and Charles Francis Flynn in 1919 and renamed the Hotel Sevilla-Biltmore. In 1924, Bowman-Biltmore Hotels constructed a huge ten-story tower wing, with a rooftop ballroom, designed by noted New York architects

Schultze & Weaver Schultze & Weaver was an architecture firm established in New York City in 1921. The partners were Leonard Schultze and S. Fullerton Weaver. History Leonard B. Schultze was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1877. He was educated at the Cit ...

. In 1939, the Sevilla-Biltmore was purchased by Italian-Uruguayan mobster

Amleto Battisti y Lora ''Amleto'' is an opera in four acts by Franco Faccio set to a libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet''. It premiered on 30 May 1865 at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and was revised for a La Scala production given on 12 ...

. Its casino was closely associated with Havana's mafia network, being part-owned by Santo Trafficante, Jr. Mobs destroyed the Sevilla-Biltmore's casino on January 1, 1959, after Fulgencio Batista fled the country overnight as Fidel Castro's rebel army approached Havana. Amleto Battisti took refuge in the Uruguayan embassy. The Sevilla-Biltmore was featured in

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

's novel ''

Our Man in Havana ''Our Man in Havana'' (1958) is a novel set in Cuba by the British author Graham Greene. He makes fun of intelligence services, especially the British MI6, and their willingness to believe reports from their local informants. The book predates ...

'' as the location where the protagonist joins the

British secret service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence ...

. Today, the hotel is owned by the Cuban state-run Gran Caribe hotel group. The French Accor chain assumed management in 1996, first under their Sofitel division as the Hotel Sofitel Sevilla Havana, and later under their

Mercure Hotels Mercure is a French midscale hotel brand specialized in traditional hotels managed by committed hoteliers, and owned by Accor. Created in 1973 in France, the brand was acquired by Accor in 1975. The Mercure brand appears on 899 hotels in 61 countr ...

division as the Hotel Mercure Sevilla Havane. Accor announced plans in 2017 to renovate the Sevilla and transfer it to their boutique MGallery by Sofitel division. However, Accor ceased management of the hotel on December 31, 2018. In 2023, it was announced that the hotel would join the Spanish

Meliá Hotels International Meliá Hotels International, S.A. (formerly Sol Meliá) is a Spanish hotel chain which was founded by Gabriel Escarrer Juliá in 1956 in Palma de Mallorca. The company is one of Spain's largest domestic operators of holiday resorts and the ...

chain.https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4116290.html

References

External links

Hotel Sevilla fan website

Hotel Sevilla cubaism.com
Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Hotels in Havana Hotels established in 1908

Hotel Sevilla The Hotel Sevilla is a historic hotel in Havana, Cuba. History The Hotel Sevilla opened on March 22, 1908. It was a four-story Moorish Revival structure, designed by architects Arellano y Mendoza on, located on Calle Trocadero, next to the Pas ...

Hotel buildings completed in 1908 Nightclubs in Havana 20th-century architecture in Cuba {{cuba-struct-stub

History

See also

References

External links