HAVANA AND ENVIRONS: Areas of the City
Old Havana
Central Havana
Vedado
Students viewing the Maquete de la Habana, Mirimar
Restoration, old and new in Plaza Veija
In this page:
Old Havana
Introduction to Old Havana
This is the area of the city where the influence of Spanish colonialism is most obvious. Many of the buildings date from the 16th century and, although a relatively small area, the neighbourhood is home to 70,000 Cubans.
Layout
Like other cities built under the governance of Spain by the Law of the Indies, Havana roughly conforms to legislation that required cities to be laid out in a grid around a single central square that was to house the main public, civic and religious buildings including the Church, governors palace and so on. Instead of one main square, Havana has several including the Plaza des Armas, Plaza de la Catedral, Plaza de San Francisco and Plaza Veija.
The city grew rapidly during the nineteenth century, which forced the local government to introduce planning laws in 1818 and in 1862, which regulated land use and building for new suburban districts. New development had to be laid out in a grid plan and the width of streets was increased from 6m to 14 meters in the suburbs (compare, for example, streets in Old Havana with those in Centro Habana and Vedado which were largely developed after the introduction of planning laws).
Architecture within Old Havana
Early Cuban architecture was heavily influenced by the architecture of Spain. Many of the colonial houses in the city conform to a basic style: large wooden doors leading into a one-storey house built around an open central courtyard (see, for example, the restaurants La Mina (Plaza de Armas) or El Patio (Plaza de Catedral)). Over time, the numbers of storeys within these buildings increased and man buildings became more baroque in style. Most of Old Havana's buildings date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and many of the most extravagant residences have been converted into Museums or Restaurants).
World Heritage Status
Old Havana (Habana Vieja) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Castro's policy of directing economic resources toward rural areas resulted in the deterioration of Havana, particularly the old city, but restoration efforts began in the 1980s. In 1982, Havana Vieja and the adjacent fortress were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Although debate continues about the appropriateness of the relatively small area delineated by UNESCO, the World Heritage Status of the area has had a significant impact in terms of the preservation of the buildings within Old Havana. Two government bodies share responsibility for aspects of the old city: namely, The National Centre for Conservation, Restoration and Museum Studies (CENCREM) and the City's Historian's Department of Architecture. In 1987, the Grupo para el Desarrollo Integral de la Capital (Centre for the Integral Development of the City: see Mirimar) was established to create a singular vision of the city.
Restoration
Eusebio Leal, the city's historian, has played a major role in preservation activities within Havana. In 1994, Leal created Habagüanex, a joint venture-for-profit-firm. Today, Habagüanex is probably the most powerful state agency within Old Havana providing ‘a cultural historic product focused mainly on Old Havana’. It operates by generating hard currency through tourism and related services in Habana Vieja and then uses these funds for historic preservation and the development of community projects. Habagüanex owns many of the restaurants and bars within the historic part of the city including El Patio, La Mina, Hostal Valencia, Hanoi and others.
In its own words, Habagüanex seeks to ‘develop tourism in Old Havana with greater diversity and cultural identity to satisfy the needs, tastes and preferences of [its] clients. It is [their] aspiration to provide the best tourism product in Havana, dynamically and efficiently organised, distinguished by quality and originality, by an atmosphere characterised by security, hospitality and essentially Cuban nature. We believe that this combination will satisfy the demands and expectations of clients, to ensure that Old Havana is a comprehensively planned tourist resort’. Leal's vision for the city has been widely promoted.
In the first year of its operation, Habagüanex generated $4 million towards regeneration costs, which included the preservation of buildings and a range of social programmes including the establishment of kindergartens, schools, services for the elderly and other community centres. No doubt there are some tensions in the activities of Habagüanex that seeks on the one hand to preserve and develop Havana as a tourist site while also seeking to address a number of social problems within the old city including unemployment, crime, poor levels of education etc.. Given the high costs of any regeneration activities, it is perhaps unsurprising that restoration activities in Havana were initially confined to a few streets (development axes), plazas as well as certain individual buildings.
Today, Habagüanex funds are largely being directed towards social programmes for the residents of Old Havana. The main programmes currently under way are the restoration of the Malecón (first fourteen blocks) and the San Isidro neighbourhood (a red-light district in the south of Old Havana).
There is a great deal of discussion about the success of the restoration of Old Havana including:
Barcia, A.R. (1999) Urban strategies in Old Havana [PDF].
Scarpaci, J.L. (2000) Winners and losers in restoring Old Havana, Cuba in Transition, [PDF] 10 (Association for the Study of the Cuba Economy, Washington DC).
Coyula, M. (2002) City, Tourism and Preservation: the Old Havana Way.
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Central Havana
Central Havana (Centro Habana) was previously the most fashionable part of Havana and housed its main commercial centre (the streets of San Rafael and Neptuno which were once Havana's most expensive commercial streets). The road running between Central and Old Havana is Paseo de Martí (also called Paseo del Prado) built between 1770 and the mid-1830s. This wide street was intended to rival the boulevards of many European cities such as Paris and Madrid. Nonetheless, the Central area of Havana does not draw in tourists like Old Havana and does not have World Heritage Status so has not been earmarked for restoration. Many of its buildings are in very poor state of repair and the residents have some of the worst housing conditions in the city with frequent power cuts and many households living without water.
Vedado
In this section:
History of Vedado
Vedado is one of Havana's newer neighbourhoods. It developed when American influence on the island was at its peak, after, the Spanish-American War. At this time, the United States governed Cuba and many US businesses invested in Havana. Vedado was in its prime in the 1920s and 1930s when American tourists flocked to the island attracted by its relative proximity (it was easily accessible by ferry from Miami and no visa was required) and the availability of alcohol at a time when the US was enforcing prohibition. During the Batista era, American mafia bosses invested heavily in Vedado and capitalised on US restrictions to develop a thriving tourist industry based around alcohol, 24 hour gambling and prostitution.
From the 1920s to the 1940s, growth in the city accompanied by a boom in building ensured that Vedado became Havana's prime commercial and (middle class) residential area. Many of Havana's most famous landmarks (such as the University of Havana, the Hotel Nacional and the first skyscraper, the López Serrano building on Linea and 11) were built at this time and often in a new architectural style. Although many middle class families moved to Mirimar in the 1950s, Vedado remained the centre of commercial and social life with many cinemas, casinos, hotels and restaurants. It was in Vedado that the infamous influence of the mafia was strongest and associated with hotels Capri, Nacional and Riviera.
The organisation of both streets and buildings in Vedado (and Mirimar to the west) was carefully planned. The influence of American occupants in the city was apparent. As in many US cities at the turn of the century, ‘unhealthy living’ (in both moral and social terms) was seen to be a product of overcrowded and industrial living conditions. As a result, when this area was developed, the wide streets were lined with trees and planning regulations made open spaces mandatory as part of the overall landscaping of the area. A minimum of one-third of each plot was required to be left unbuilt with fifteen feet of garden being retained between the building and the street. Many of these spaces and Vedado's parks have since been built upon but you will notice that this area is more open than other parts of Havana.
Things to see
The only monument to Castro in Havana is located on the corner of Calle 12 and 23 in Vedado. This monument commemorates the 1961 Havana Declaration (when the revolution was publicly declared to be socialist).
Parque John Lennon: unofficially known as Parque John Lennon for years but officially renamed in December 2000 when Castro unveiled a statue of John Lennon.
Mirimar
The influence of American wealth is clearly visible in the suburb of Mirimar, which was designed in a similar way to the American garden city. In the early years of the revolution, the wealthy white residents of this suburb were one of the first groups of people to leave Cuba. The large houses were mainly turned into multiple dwellings with many becoming home to students or being used as re-education centres intended to retrain locals (e.g. prostitutes) in certain professions. Some were reassigned to exemplary party workers.
Today, while some of the houses are in a state of disrepair, this area still has a feeling of wealth compared with other areas of Havana and parts of Mirimar are being restored . Some of the large houses are now embassies, while others are headquarters for mixed Cuban/foreign enterprises. This areas houses many of Cuba's wealthier foreign workers (mainly to the West of the Almendares) and some services have developed to meet their needs including two private dollar hospitals (for foreigners only), international schools and shops including Le Select (Qunita Avenida) and a large supermaret on the corner of 70 and Tercera.
Maquete de la Habana is a simple, large-scale model of Havana covering over 1500 square feet (although not yet complete) at a scale of 1:1000. The Maquete has been created by photographing and measuring every building in Havana before one of the nine modellers then builds it and adds it to the model. The model is colour coded with colonial buildings (16th to 19th century) coloured in reddish-brown, buildings from 1900 to 1958 are coloured yellowish-brown and anything built post-revolution is coloured cream. The model shows that most of Havana's buildings were built in the 20th century with considerable building expected in the future (white buildings are mainly hotels and commercial centres proposed by foreign investors).
The model is housed in the building of the Centre for Integral Development of the City (see Havana: World Heritage Site). Their role is to monitor the conservation and urbanisation of Havana. Every time a new building is proposed, a model is built and inserted in the Maquete to assess its likely impact on the environment. The group has an advisory role only and has had some success in toning down offices and buildings that would dominate certain neighbourhoods but the power of the dollar means that some buildings are approved despite their concerns.