Brunet Palace Romantic Museum

Brunet Palace Romantic Museum is one of the most visited architectural gems in Cuba

Nicolas de la Cruz Brunet and Muñoz, born on September 14th, 1810.

He resided either in Trinidad, Havana and Cadiz, Spain, where he died in 1893.

He received the title of “Count of Brunet House” on September 26th, 1836, and he was awarded the Order of Isabella the Catholic.

It was also “Viscount of Palmarito”, “San Buenaventura Count” and Gentleman of the Bedchamber of His Majesty.

He married in 1830 with Josefa Angela Borrell y Lemus, of the House of “Marquis of Guaimaro”, daughter of the rich landowner Don Jose Mariano Borrell and Padron.

They lived in the Palace, located in the Major Square.

The house occupied by the Brunet Palace Romantic Museum

Started to be built in the eighteenth century, the house located in 52 Cristo Street in the Trinidad City, Sancti Spiritus belonged to several illustrious families.

The original house was built in 1741 by Captain Felipe Santiago de Silva.

When Felipe died the house passes to his son, the priest Jose Antonio de Silva and Oquendo, who died in 1807 and his executors sold it to Jose Mariano Borrell and Padron, who ordered the construction of the upper floor in 1808.

The Jose Mariano death in 1830, had as a consequence that the house was inherited by his daughter Angela Borrell y Lemus, who in that same year married Nicolas Brunet and Muñoz.

The property then had various uses until it was acquired by the Association for Trinidad in 1945 and partly restored, served as the headquarters of the association until 1964, when capital repair work began to finally be converted it into museum.

The Brunet Palace Romantic Museum, received the rank of “palace” by the magnificence of its pomp and regalia, as well as the magnitude of its architectural scale in relation to the average Trinitarian housing.

It is an example of the domestic architecture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

It was distinguished by the Andalusian patio, which at the time was considered the most beautiful in the Caribbean country.

The house retains the architecture of the ground floor and features of the Moorish style at the top, architectural lines correspond to neoclassical.

The facade of large arches on pillars that shape the portal, the marble floor, the projecting balcony with iron railing decorated differ.

Inauguration of the Brunet Palace Romantic Museum

The Brunet Palace Romantic Museum opened on May 26th, 1974, boasts one of the most valuable collections of decorative arts of Cuba and authentically recreates the atmosphere of the nineteenth-century city.

The museum space is arranged in rooms, lobbies, main dining rooms, small rooms for special uses, living rooms, bedrooms, bathroom and latrine, as the typical houses.

Its 14 exhibition halls bring together a wide sample of exquisite pieces of furniture and tableware, silverware, lingerie, cedar closets, porcelain and glasses of the most famous European factories, a sign of the splendor that surrounded the social elite of the city in the colonial period especially between 1830 and 1860.

From this set, some objects can be distinguished, such as Spanish brass and nacre bed and French cabinet and 1852 found in the bedroom; a German Meissen cabinet within which a gold pen and rubies and various objects of pearl, ivory and porcelain are displayed; a desktop dating from the time of Maria Theresa of Austria, perfectly preserved.

Also an admirable singularity the murals that decorate the walls and furniture of the Palace built by master cabinetmakers of the time influenced the empire pure English and American style, which can be seen in the replacement of upholstery typical for the straw, best paintings the climate of the island.