Napoleon Museum (Havana)

The Napoleon Museum in Havana, Cuba houses one of the most important collections from the 18th and 19th centuries preserved in the Western hemisphere. The Museum (in San Miguel Street, between Ronda and Mazón, on one side of the University of Havana) reopened in March 2011 after a three-year restoration by the City Historian’s Office. Napoleon Princess Alix de Foresta, widow of Luis Marie Bonaparte, a descendent of King Jerome, Bonaparte’s younger brother, was especially invited to the island for the opening.

The museum was founded in 1961, occupying a 1929 Florentine Renaissance style mansion "La Dolce Dimora", the home of an Italian-Cuban politician, Orestes Ferrara. The architects were Evelio Govantes and Félix Cabarrocas, whose also designed El Capitolio and the Casa de la Amistad on Paseo.

The museum displays almost 8,000 items, most of them related to the period from the French Revolution through the Second Empire. The collection includes a specialized library, suits, weapons, military equipment, furniture, coins, historic and decorative objects. Artwork is displayed from Louis Tocqué, Jean-Marc Nattier, Nicolas de Largillière, Jean Baptiste Regnault; François Flameng, Andrea Appiani and Robert Léfèvre. The museum displays Napoleon’s death mask, brought by Dr. Francesco Antommarchi, the last doctor to treat Napoleon on Saint Helena, who died in Santiago de Cuba; and Napoleon's telescope.

External links

• "Rare Napoleonic museum opens in Cuba", The Independent (U.K.), 3 April 2011