Palacio de Valle, CienfuegosHistoric palaceCienfuegosCuba
Palacio de Valle
- Best time
- Late afternoon, as the light drops over the bay
- Getting there
- At the end of the Punta Gorda peninsula, south of the centre along the bay
Why it’s in the log
The Italian architect Alfredo Colli built the Palacio de Valle between 1913 and 1917, and it looks like nothing else in Cienfuegos: domes, arches and tiled towers in a Moorish-revival style, in a city otherwise laid out in neoclassical order. It was begun for the merchant Celestino Caces and finished for the Asturian-born Acisclo del Valle Blanco, who bought it and gave it his name.
It was declared a National Monument in 2000 and is now a restaurant — which makes it one of the few buildings of its kind in Cuba you can simply walk into and sit down in.
It stands near the end of the Punta Gorda peninsula with the bay around it. Come in the late afternoon.
