The wonderful City of Havana
For some people who has recently visited Cuba, Havana is the loveliest city in
the world. The capital’s ability to seduce all never fails to astonish every
one, thus they feel it only right to
reflect on its charms.
A defining
feature of Havana’s appeal has been its singular mix of ethnicities, beliefs,
traditions, smells and contrasting colors since November 16, 1519, when - after
having had three different locations - the Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana
was officially established, at the site where the Plaza de Armas, El Templete
and its revered ceiba tree, are found today.
However, Havana
is currently more popular than ever as confirmed by the third edition of the
Seven Wonder Cities of the World competition, organized by the New7Wonders
Foundation based in Switzerland, in 2014. Havana placed among the top wonder
cities of the world, alongside Beirut (Lebanon), Doha (Qatar), Durban (South
Africa), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), La Paz (Bolivia) and Vigan (The Philippines).
It is worth
highlighting that the competition featured 1,200 cities from 220 countries,
while Havana also featured among the 25 most photographed places in the world.
According to the President of New7Wonders, Bernard Weber, the title of Wonder
City of the World will be awarded to the Cuban capital on June 7, as a symbol
of the global diversity of urban society and because everything – tangible or
intangible – included within the 726.75 square kilometer area is Cuba.
THE KEY TO A NEW
WORLD
Although there
are many stories about how the city got its name, the most widely accepted is
that relating to the Taíno chief Habaguanex. Boasting an advantageously
positioned port and enviable geographic location, Havana became the most prized
of Spain’s colonies throughout the Americas during the colonial period, and
subsequently became known as the “Key to the New World and Rampart of the West
Indies.”
Officially
declared a city on December 20, 1592, by King Philip II of Spain, and following
the relocation of the Spanish government headquarters to the area in 1593, from
Santiago de Cuba, Havana became the island’s capital. The city currently covers
0.7% of the country’s surface area and has, among its extraordinary relics,
over 30 National Monuments.
With its unique
natural environment, Havana will forever be remembered as the “city of
architecture, poetry, rebellions; the conspiring city, of great heroics, and of
course, of culture.”
Diría Xonia
Beltrán, director of Tourism for the popular city destination of Havana, noted
that efforts are underway to further develop varied events and protect
cultural, patrimonial and educational treasures; with work focused on cultural
and scientific activities, which include the majority of the island’s
professionals.
But despite the
fact that one fifth of the island’s total population and 30% of its
professionals live in Havana, and although the city generates over half of the
country’s tourism revenue and Gross Domestic Product, the capital lacks
mobility.
A HISTORIC CITY
What is more, as
the city celebrates its 490th anniversary, Havana “is rundown in many places,
in ruins in others, often the victim of neglect, negligent tendencies and lack
of appreciation for the symbolic value of a city that was able to announce a
new order which it has maintained for over half a century with the noble
character of our own people.” Unlike many places throughout the Americas,
Havana has successfully preserved its colonial architectural heritage.
The world famous
Old Havana, which includes the city’s historic center and network of forts
declared World Heritage sites by UNESCO in 1982, is interwoven among former
palaces, mansions, small and large squares, cobblestone streets, churches,
saints and lofty balconies filled with a mixture of people, voices, and
flavors. Cuba’s oldest square, Plaza de Las Armas; that known as Plaza Vieja;
Plaza San Francisco de Asís and Plaza de la Catedral, which were built at the
end of the 16th century, have all become important icons of the area.
In addition to
the San Carlos de la Cabaña Fort, which protected Spanish forces after the
British navy captured Havana in 1762, and which still symbolically guards the
bay, the city is home to castles built to ward off corsairs and pirates, while
it also boasts some of the oldest forts in the Americas including the Real
Fuerza (1577), San Salvador de La Punta (1600) and Tres Reyes Magos del Morro
(1630).
One hundred and
forty structures dating from the 16th-17th centuries still stand in the
historic center, almost all military or religious buildings; as well as some
200 from the 18th century, the majority civil infrastructure spaces; and over
450 from the 19th century, during which urbanization greatly expanded. The city
continued to develop rapidly expanding beyond the perimeters of the defensive
wall constructed to protect it. Almost 100 years later, around 1863, that wall
began to be demolished.
BEYOND THE WALLS
Havana began to
grow rapidly during the first half of the 20th century. The city expanded from
east to west in a rapid process of addition rather than substitution, over less
than six decades. With the triumph of the Revolution the idea was now to focus
on investing in the rest of the country in order to reduce the historic
disparity between the capital and the rest of the island
Pre-1990s
migration figures show that Havana had a sustainable migration rate. However,
with the on set of the Special Period, this trend shot up and the city become
an even more diverse place.
This is the same
city that is home to the stunning Playas del Este beaches; whose Parque
Metropolitano represents the enormous green lung of the capital; which today
still features the first promenade built in the city; as well as Paula street,
along which a young Martí would stroll, and the University of Havana stairway,
where the most radical and authentic revolutionary ideals were formulated;
which among Daiquirís and other alcoholic beverages guards the memory of visits
by Ernest Hemingway to the El Floridita bar and restaurant, and Creole cuisine
and wall scribblings at the La Bodeguita del Medio.
Havana also
boasts the majestic Colon Cemetery and exquisite Hotel Nacional, which has seen
important figures from the arts, culture and politics, parade along its
hallways; ancestral Asian culture brought over by the Chinese from 1847; the
grand neo-classical buildings which surround the Capitolio, the memorial at the
Plaza de la Revolución, or the talented artists who have performed on stages
such as that of the Alicia Alonso Grand Theater of Havana, the National Fine
Arts Museum and Paseo del Prado.
To the west of
the city the streets begin to widen leading to the busy neighborhood of Vedado,
then onto the dazzling Tropicana Cabaret and 5th Avenue, whose elegance has
seen it become a diplomatic and business center, until the Havana Convention
Center, which hosts a wide variety of events.
It was to this
Havana that the rebel soldiers entered in 1959, and where almost half of all
visitors to the island come every year. Havana is quite simply the sui géneris
mother of the social, cultural, economic and political evolution of a country
committed to its people’s wellbeing.
Protected to the
north by a eight kilometer-long sea wall
(the Malecón), the warm and welcoming city, the inspiration for many poems and
songs, greets visitors with the open arms of its Christ, and watched over by
the La Giraldilla weathervane. Havana is the traditional melting pot, as
described by Fernando Ortiz; a city which belongs to its residents and to all
Cubans.
LOCAL GUIDE IN HAVANA
HUMBERTO
+5352646921 Whatssap & Telegram
http://humberto. webcindario,com
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