The crumbling villas of Havana

Regla Victoria Rodriguez standing on the balcony of her dilapidated home on Villegas Street in Havana.

THE house on Villegas Street, in the heart of Old Havana, looks nothing like the stately two-storey home it used to be a century ago, with its high ceilings, wrought iron railings, semicircular arches and stairs covered in white marble.

Its former elegance is such that local lore says it used to belong to a marquise.