Havana, November 12 (RHC) – Only few days before Havana’s birthday, several museums have reopened in the Cuban capital. The Railroad Museum, located at the historical Cristina station, and the Automobile Museum, also in the city’s oldest area, have opened their doors in Havana. Other institutions include Old Havana’s Municipal Government’s hemicycle and the Sacred Art Museum at the Minor Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Built in 1861 Cristina was one of the three major railroad stations in Havana in the 19th century, which lost its function as a public service terminal in 1912, when the Central Station was inaugurated. It was not until November, 2000, that the site became Cuba’s Railroad Museum and two years later it was declared a National Monument. The museum treasures an impressive collection of steam engines, including the oldest one in Cuba, named ‘La Junta’ from 1842, which arrived in the province of Matanzas in 1843, where it continuously worked until the 1990’s.

‘The railroad park includes 40 locomotives built between 1878 and 1925. A team of technicians from the Havana Historian Office worked since 2006 to rescue these authentic jewels brought from various parts of the island,’ its director explained. The park also has the only English engine in the country, found in the mountains by a group of experts, plus the Baldwin 1112 locomotive, which works with coal or wood, and was used in the shooting of the Cuban film ‘José Martí, the Eye of the Canary’.

Another cultural institution that has opened in the capital is the Automobile Museum, located in the historical center’s heart, whose collection treasures a De Soto car and heritage value cars, dating from 1916 to 1918. ‘These are supported by graphics and images that will tell the story. It is a comprehensive design project ‘, the director added.