This publication is a continuation of my previous writing, in which I described a part of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Havana, the capital of Cuba. This museum is a beautiful mansion that belonged to Countess María Luisa Gómez Mena and was converted into a museum in 1964, after its owner left the country definitively. It houses a large number of works of great artistic value, all of them very well preserved, some of them unique of their kind. It also has an impressive architecture. For this reason, I have decided to make several posts about this building, as it would be impossible to show it all in one post.

Today I will show you the exhibition rooms on the first floor of the museum, together with their beautiful art.

I made this visit with my daughter and my husband. We were both very impressed by the amount of valuable objects and how well preserved they are. After the guided tour of the ground floor, I was eager to climb the stairs leading to the upper floor. This is an imperial staircase with marble steps and is truly impressive.

In my previous post I mentioned that the entire floor of this place is made of marble, which was specially brought from Europe. I was very impressed by this, as the floors are really beautiful and shiny. In the areas of the mansion with good natural light, you can even see your reflection as you walk on the polished marble.

Back to the stairs, they are white with grey veins and have a beautiful wrought iron handrail.

At the landing of the staircase, we obliged to stop and admire the beautiful hunting horn carved in ivory, which belonged to Louis XIII and dates from the 17th century. Due to its large size, this horn has always been a decorative object and was part of the collection of the former owner of the house, who was a lover of the era of the kings of France and had a collection of many French pieces from that period, which are exhibited in the museum.

As we climb up, we come across a beautiful ceiling lamp that matches perfectly with the design of the staircase banister. It hangs from an iron chain under a glass-covered roof. I imagined how nice it must be to see the raindrops on the glass when it rains. Unfortunately, during my visit it was sunny and it didn't rain.

In this part of the house, as on the ground floor, there are amazing decorations. The corridors are galleries where beautiful and delicate pieces of art are displayed in French, German and English porcelain, as well as Italian ceramics and carefully crafted metalwork in silver, gold and bronze.

In the salons we can find elegant hand-carved precious wood furniture in the French style of the 18th century, with marble and bronze elements.

In one of the rooms on this floor is the bathroom, which is only visible through glass and is not open to the public. It was explained to us that it is designed in the French style and retains, like almost everything else in the place, its original design. It is the most modern room in the whole house. Curiously, the toilet is not visible, as it is behind a door, probably for privacy. Neither my husband nor I noticed that you can't see it, only my little girl asked where did the pee-pee. jaja, no doubt that children are more observant than adults. 😄

One of the rooms that impressed me the most was the Oriental room, due to the amount of works of art it has from different countries of the Asian continent, such as China, Japan, India and Thailand. I loved the ivory collection with a great variety of pieces. They are delicate handmade works, all uniquely beautiful and with an exceptional level of detail.

In the center of the room are large 17th century gres fish bowls. Gres is a very compact ceramic material. These large fish tanks, which can also be seen in one of the corridors, are coated with a glaze that gives them a bright color and various patterns can be seen on them.

As we left the Oriental Room, we were taken to the eclectic lounge, which is actually a small room with various furnishings and decorations from different places, styles and eras. An elegant crystal lamp hangs from the ceiling. It is a small room, but I liked it very much as I found it very cosy.

Many celebrities were invited to this small palace in the Vedado district of the capital. Only the most distinguished and elegant people of the time attended the parties and receptions of the Countess. In some surviving photographs from the 1950s, you can see some of the guests, such as the famous Cuban poet Dulce María Loynaz, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the Duchess of Alba and the Counts of Barcelona, at a reception given in their honor.

This palace, where unique works of art are exhibited, and which was built by its owner to enjoy luxury, nowadays, being a museum, offers the opportunity to thousands of people, who perhaps would never have been able to visit such a place, to appreciate these grandiose works of art. The work and dedication required to collect and preserve all these pieces over the years is admirable.

With this publication and the previous one, I conclude my visit to the interior of the Museum of Decorative Arts, although this is not the end of my tour, as this mansion has beautiful gardens and exteriors worth mentioning. Although this is not the end of the tour, as this mansion has beautiful gardens and exteriors that are worth mentioning. Wait for my next post. I hope you enjoyed this tour.

See you next time! 👋

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Link to my previous post

Information about their collections can be found on the Cuban site Ecured

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