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Old Havana or, to be clear, Havana “old”, “colonial” is dotted with architectural jewels dating back as far as five centuries,

Habana Vieja enchants visitors with one of the finest urban complexes in the Americas. By a conservative estimate, Old Havana contains over 900 buildings of historical importance, with a myriad of examples of illustrious architecture ranging from the intertwined 17th-century baroque and the 19th century to neoclassical and lavish Art Deco.

Havana old town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982, like the imposing El Morro-Cabaña fortress complex, Havana Vieja is usually the first stop on the tourist route and the main objective of city exploration. It is easy to see why: with its 500 years of rich architectural heritage and an impressive and eclectic concentration of museums and galleries, there is an enormous amount to do and see as you explore squares and cobblestone streets pulsating with everyday life. The most important squares and buildings shine again like stone confetti thanks to a massive restoration project centered, so far, on the four main colonial squares and the cobblestone streets in between. The streets are made more colorful by mulatto women dressed in Carmen Miranda style in traditional colonial costume.

But this is only one side of the story. Habana Vieja – the colonial city once enclosed by a wall (demolished starting in 1863) is an enormous grid of streets populated by 60,000 habaneros living cheek by jowl in a unique atmosphere of calles, colors, small businesses and markets. Despite its many historical attractions, visitors remain captivated by the noisy commotion that is the intimate and gritty street life of Old Havana, just as much as they are by museums and picturesque squares. Simply wandering the streets is its own reward, offering fortuitous and often surreal encounters in abundance.

Today, Habana Vieja extends to Paseo de Martí, Parque Central and the Capitolio – late 19th-century entities that many consider the epicenter of Havana's social life and the zero point for exploring the city.

The street names of Habana Vieja can be confusing, as maps and common language use the official (post-revolution) and older (and more popular) names interchangeably. But within Habana Vieja, it is not difficult, with a good map, to find your way around the grid of narrow streets and squares.

One of the busiest streets in Old Havana, second only to calle Obispo, is calle Mercaderes which runs parallel north-south and two blocks from Avenida del Puerto, connecting Plaza de la Catedral with Plaza Vieja. The cobblestone, car-free street owes its name (literally “merchants' street”) to the numerous shops that once filled this street. The street has been completely restored since the early 1980s and today is practically complete with boutiques, hotels, museums and other sites of interest, including Havana's first café, Taberna, which is still standing and is today a lively bar-restaurant dedicated to singer and bandleader Beny Moré. No exploration of Old Havana is complete without a pleasant stroll along Mercaderes.