Finca La Vigia was the home of Ernest Hemingway in San Francisco de Paula

Finca La Vigia was the home of Ernest Hemingway in the village of San Francisco de Paula, approximately 12 km from Havana

On a hill on the southern outskirts of Havana, surrounded by a lush garden,

is the home of this famous American writer

We have visited the house during our stay in Havana but the house

itself is not accessible

Through the open windows, you can see his house well

as you can see in my video

In the garden stood a tower, that Hemingway had built for his fifty cats

and where he had a desk on the top floor

It was for him the ideal place to write and he had a great view of Havana

The Finca was built in 1886 and designed by architect Miguel Pascual y Baguer

Hemingway lived here from mid 1939-1960

In December 1940 bought the house for $ 12,500 after he was married to his

third wife Martha Gellhorn

She had come to Cuba for Hemingway, but decided she didn`t want to live in the

small room 511 he rented at the Hotel Ambos Mundos

The room is now a museum

The Finca consisted at that time of 15 acres (61,000 m2) with a farm

It was at Finca La Vigia he wrote much of the novel about the

Spanish Civil War "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

The novel was launched in Hotel Ambos Mundos

Hemingway wrote in 1951 "The Old Man and the Sea" on the Finca

This story is about the Cuban fisherman Gregorio Fuentes who, after an unsuccessful period in battle, becomes a huge swordfish that he wants to get inside at all costs

Hemingway won with “The old man and the sea” in 1953 the Pulitzer Prize

and in 1954 the Nobel Prize for Literature

After Hemingway and Gellhorn were divorced in 1945, retained Hemingway Finca Vigia and lived there during the winter with his last wife Mary Welsh Hemingway

She has the house redecorated and it hasn`t changed since then

There are also many hunting trophies and animals in formaldehyde to see

Ernest Hemingway bred cats and four of Hemingway ` s

dogs buried near the pool

During the Second World War, Hemingway's three sons visited

him often at the Finca

Sometimes they stayed in the "small" house that Martha (" Marty") had fixed up for them and was also used as a guest house

Hemingway`s yacht Pilar is made ​​entirely of mahogany and oak wood and is located in the garden under a canopy where once his tennis court was

In 1959 the Cuban revolution took place and Hemingway

left everything behind

Since then, the Cuban state takes care of its archives and various

items from his home

This includes manuscripts, documents, sketchbooks, photographs, letters,

artwork and books

On July 2, 1961 he took his own life with a shot from his favorite gun

He wasn`t the only one in his family who committed suicide

His father, brother, sister and his granddaughter came to their

end in the same way

Click here for the website www.Hemingwaycuba.com