Old Havana Restoration Reaches a New Milestone

The restoration work in Old Havana’s Plaza Vieja has revealed an extraordinary find: beneath more than a dozen layers of modern paint, a team of conservators has discovered 18th-century frescoes depicting scenes of colonial Cuban life.

The discovery, announced by the Office of the City Historian, confirms what many experts suspected: Havana’s colonial buildings harbor hidden artistic treasures beneath decades of poorly planned interventions.

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Every stone in this city tells a story. Our duty is to listen.

A Find Beneath Layers of Time

The restoration team, composed of Cuban specialists and collaborators from the Getty Conservation Institute, worked for six months to document and stabilize the frescoes before making them public.

What’s Next

Authorities plan to open a permanent exhibition hall in the same building where the frescoes were found, allowing the public to see the restored works in their original context.

The project is part of a broader effort to preserve Havana’s architectural heritage, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. Experts estimate that hundreds of buildings still remain to be explored in search of similar hidden art.