Centro Habana (Central Havana—pop. 175,000) lies west of the Paseo del Martí and south of the Malecón. The region is a 19th-century extension of Habana Vieja and evolved following demolition of the city walls in 1863. Prior, it had served as a glacis.

The buildings are deep and tall, of four or five stories, built mostly as apartment units, with air shafts instead of interior patios. Hence, the population and street life are denser. Laid out in a near-perfect grid, Centro is mostly residential, with few sights of note. A notable exception is the remnants of Chinatown—Barrio Chino—delineated by Calles Zanja, Dragones, Salud, Rayo, San Nicolás, and Manrique.

In prerevolutionary days, Centro Habana hosted Havana’s red-light district, and prostitutes roamed such streets as the ill-named Calle Virtudes (Virtues). Then, too, Neptuno and San Rafael formed the retail heart of the city. In recent years, they have regained some of their life and the famous department stores of prerevolutionary days have reopened; many still bear prerevolutionary neon signs promoting U.S. brand names from yesteryear.

Many houses, having been battered by waves and salt air over decades, are in a tumbledown state—about one in three houses has collapsed, conjuring up images of what Dresden, Germany, must have looked like after it was bombed in World War II. Take care walking the streets, as pickpockets and muggings commonly occur here.

South of Centro, the land rises gently to Cerro, which developed during the last century as the place to retire for the torrid midsummer months; many wealthy families maintained two homes in Havana—one in town, another on the cooler hill (cerro means “hill”). The area is replete with once-stately casas quintas (summer homes) in neoclassical, Beaux-Arts, and art nouveau styles. Alas, the region is terribly deteriorated, and the majority of buildings transcend sordid. It is one of the more disreputable areas of the city, and caution is required.