Ernest Hemingway House and Museum

About the Business:

Ten miles east of Havana is Hemingway’s Cuba house – Finca Vigia, meaning “lookout house”.

Finca Vigia is located in the small, working-class town of San Francisco de Paula. The Cuban people have always respected famous writer’s choice to live in a modest town, amongst the people he fished with.

Built in 1886 by a Spanish Architect Miguel Pascual y Baguer, Finca Vigia was purchased by Hemingway in 1940 for a cost of $12,500.

There, Hemingway wrote two of his most celebrated novels: For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea. A Movable Feast was written there as well.

After Hemingway’s death in 1961, the Cuban government took ownership of the property – either with or without the approval of Mary Hemingway.

After years of neglect, restoration and preservation work has begun.

Finca Vigía has made both the World Monuments Fund list of 100 Most Endangered sites, and The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 11 Most Endangered Places.