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Lenticular 3-D tourist postcard — Castillo de la Real Fuerza, Havana (printed in Pyongyang, DPRK)

Postcard

A lenticular ("3-D") pictorial postcard showing the watchtower (garita/torre de la vigía) of the Castillo de la Real Fuerza in Old Havana, crowned by its emblematic bronze weathervane, La Giraldilla. The vertically ribbed lenticular lens gives the image stereoscopic depth and the characteristic fine ridging visible in a flat photograph. The composition looks up at the cylindrical tower against a graded blue sky; three small figures (apparently young people in 1970s dress) are seated on the masonry terrace at lower left, against the fortress's sloping limestone wall. The reverse is a printed postcard back in the Spanish-and-English bilingual convention, headed "TARJETA POSTAL," with a vertical divider labeled "REPÚBLICA DE CUBA," a dotted stamp box, and three address rules. The caption reads "CASTILLO DE LA FUERZA / Ciudad de La Habana / LA FUERZA CASTLE / Havana City." Centered at the foot is the printer's line "Impreso en Pyongyang, RPDC" (Printed in Pyongyang, DPRK — i.e., the Democratic People's Republic of Korea). The card is unposted and heavily age-toned, with overall browning and edge wear.

2025.11.38

Castillo de la Fuerza

Havana

Cuba

Caribbean

Central America

2025.11

Purchase

Pyongyang

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Asia

Printed (reverse): "TARJETA POSTAL"; "REPÚBLICA DE CUBA"; "CASTILLO DE LA FUERZA / Ciudad de La Habana / LA FUERZA CASTLE / Havana City"; "Impreso en Pyongyang, RPDC." No manuscript, stamp, or postmark.

Single lenticular postcard (one leaf).

Fair

Havana

Cuba

Caribbean

Central America

imagery

Pyongyang

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Asia

production

Castillo de la Fuerza

Havana

Cuba

Caribbean

Central America

The subject, the Castillo de la Real Fuerza (built 1558–1577, among the oldest stone forts in the Americas), carries atop its tower the 1632 bronze weathervane La Giraldilla, an emblem of Havana.

This postcard is a material trace of the alliance between revolutionary Cuba and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) within the socialist and non-aligned world. Although it depicts a Cuban subject and was issued for the Cuban market ("República de Cuba"), it was manufactured in Pyongyang — North Korea having developed a notable specialty in lenticular ("3-D") printing, which it exported to allied states. Cuba and the DPRK maintained close diplomatic, military, and cultural ties from the 1960s onward, and the outsourcing of Cuban tourist-postcard production to North Korea is a vivid, little-remembered example of South–South socialist economic cooperation.