The Fondation Rosa Abreu de Grancher was inaugurated in 1933 to house Cuban students in Paris. It was realised thanks to a donation from Pierre Sanchez and his sister Rosalia, members of a wealthy Franco-Cuban family involved in the production of sugar since the 19th century. The Fondation bears the name of their aunt, Rosa Abreu, of Cuban origin, and her husband, the medical professor Jacques-Joseph Grancher who had worked with Louis Pasteur on the rabies vaccine. The donation from the Abreu family was signed in 1929. It was supplemented by a donation from the Cité internationale who permitted the increase in the number of rooms in the house . The Fondation Rosa Abreu de Grancher was inaugurated in 1933.
The Fondation Rosa Abreu de Grancher is managed by the Fondation nationale Cité internationale universitaire de Paris. It has 87 rooms.
Construction on the Fondation Rosa Abreu de Grancher began in 1930. The architect Albert Laprade, co-designer of the Lucien Paye residence and creator of the Musée des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie in Paris, today known as the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration, was charged with this project. He was inspired by the Havana Cathedral and characteristics of Cuban architecture to construct a building in the Spanish Colonial style. The Maison de Cuba was considered to be the most luxurious house at the Cité internationale because each room had a bathroom with a bath and some of the mahogany wooden furniture was made in the Cuban capital.
In 2007, a convention between the Cité internationale and Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) was signed, assigning 150 rooms in the Cité internationale to foreign practitioners in training.
The AP-HP participated in the funding for the complete renovation of the house which was carried out between 2009 and 2011, under the leadership of the architect Eddy Vahanian, with the aim of modernising the house whilst preserving its architectural identity and historic characteristics. The bedroom furniture and the woodwork in the Grand Lounge were also restored.
Georges Charpak (1924-2010), A Franco-Polish physician, won the Nobel prize for physics in 1992 for his works on multiwire particle detectors. A member of the Académie des sciences, he initiated the educational programme “La main à la pâte”.