HAVANA 22 March 2008 Masterpiece of colonial architecture in Cuba, the Hotel Sevilla, turns 100

The city's first luxury establishment, the Hotel Sevilla, is often described as a masterpiece of Moorish and colonial architecture. For its 100th birthday the hotel is gearing up to recreate some of the pomp that accompanied its opening in 1908. Bought and restored by a French hotel chain, the Accor group, it has been lovingly restored and is one of the most expensive places to stay in Havana.

This was the place to stay in Havana during the Batista regime, and photos line the wall in the ground floor gallery show a number of the celebrities and gangsters who stayed here during the hotels heyday in the '30s and '40s. The hotel features in Graham Greene's novel, "Our Man in Havana," as the place where Wormwood meets Hawthorne. The hotel was left to rot following the revolution as a symbol of the corruption that Castro and his revolutionaries sought to overthrow.

The Sevilla's guests included actresses Gloria Swanson and Merle Oberon, singer Josephine Baker, gangster Al Capone, opera star Enrico Caruso and boxer Joe Louis

It was caught up in Cuba's revolution and nationalized like much other private property in the country -- but was returned to private hands in 1995. The renovations undertaken by the new owners have concentrated on preserving its original colonial flavor. Dec/07