A dog wanders down a sidewalk near Castillo de la Real Fuerza in Old Havana. Named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1982, long before neglected walls and roofs started crashing down, Havana's historic quarter is starting to show the benefits of recent renovations which radiate along its mostly cobbled streets.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for "Old Havana," June 1999, National Geographic magazine)