Havana Architecture

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

◄ There’s lots of it and you encounter it everywhere you walk. Like the Casa Particulares – a Cuban B&B, Airbnb without the internet – where I stayed on Calle Concordia in Central Havana, a few blocks back from the Malecón. My room has one of those balconies up towards the top.

 

 

 

▼ Walking from there towards Old Havana I would pass by the very fine Hotel Inglaterra, the city’s oldest hotel.

◄ On a corner of Plaza Vieja in Old Havana is the Palacio Cueto with its ‘outrageously ornate’ façade it’s the finest example of art nouveau in Havana. It’s been empty and derelict for more than 20 years, but restoration is underway.

 

 

 

 

▼ From the plaza you can walk down Calle de los Mercaderes to some fine Havana restaurants.
Brutalist architecture was on the mind as we drove out to the School of Arts in the suburbs, since construction was brought to an end in the Soviet era because it didn’t meet the Russian ideals of socialist architecture at the time. So it was appropriate that we passed the Russian Embassy on our way there, it’s a fine example of the Soviet era. ►