Havana

Havana La Habana
Havana skyline Havana skyline
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname: Ciudad de las Columnas   (Spanish) " City of Columns "
Position of Havana in Cuba Position of Havana in Cuba
Coordinates: {{#invoke:Coordinates|coord}}{{#coordinates:23|8|0|N|82|23|0|W|type:city
	name= }}
Country	Cuba
Province	Ciudad de La Habana
Founded	1515a
Municipalities	15 Arroyo Naranjo Boyeros Centro Habana Cerro Cotorro Diez de Octubre Guanabacoa La Habana del Este La Habana Vieja La Lisa Marianao Playa Plaza de la Revolución Regla San Miguel del Padrón
Government
- Mayor	Juan Contino Aslán (PCC)
Area
- City	721.01 km² (278.4 sq mi)
Elevation	59 m (194 ft)
Population (2005 & 2006 est)
- City	2,400,300
- Density	3,053.5/km² (7,908.5/sq mi)
- Urban	2,700,200
- Metro	3,710,100
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
Postal code	10xxx-19xxx
Area code(s)	(+53) 7
a Founded on the present site was founded in 1519.

Havana (Template:Audio-es, IPA: [la aˈβana], officially Ciudad de La Habana, is the capital city, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba.

King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City in 1592 and a royal decree in 1634 recognized its importance by officially designated as the "Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies". Havana's coat of arms carries this inscription. The Spaniards began building fortifications, and in 1553 they transferred the governor's residence to Havana from Santiago de Cuba on the eastern end of the island, thus making Havana the de facto capital. The importance of harbour fortifications was early recognized as English, French, and Dutch sea marauders attacked the city in the 16th century. The sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana's harbor in 1898 was the immediate cause of the Spanish-American War.

Nowadays Havana is the center of the Cuban government, and various ministries and headquarters of businesses are based there.

Geography

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The port of Havana.

File:Vedado, Havana.jpg

Havana's newer suburban districts.

The name Habana is probably based upon the name of a local Taíno chief Habaguanex. The city is referred to as Havana in Dutch, English, and Portuguese.

Havana is located along a deep-sea bay with a sheltered harbour, making it a prime location for economic development from Spanish colonial times. The city extends mostly west and south from the bay, which is entered through a narrow inlet and which divides into three main harbours: Marimelena, Guanabacoa, and Atarés.

The sluggish Almendares River traverses the city from south to north, entering the Straits of Florida a few miles west of the bay.

The low hills on which the city lies rise gently from the deep blue waters of the straits. A noteworthy elevation is the 200 foot (60 meter) high limestone ridge that slopes up from the east and culminates in the heights of La Cabaña and El Morro, the sites of colonial fortifications overlooking the bay. Another notable rise is the hill to the west that is occupied by the University of Havana and the Prince's Castle.

Havana, like much of Cuba, enjoys a pleasant year-round tropical climate that is tempered by the island's position in the belt of the trade winds and by the warm offshore currents. Average temperatures range from 72°F (22°C) in January and February to 82°F (28°C) in August. The temperature seldom drops below 50°F (10°C). Rainfall is heaviest in October and lightest from February through April, averaging 46 inches (1167 millimetres) annually. Hurricanes occasionally strike the island, but they ordinarily hit the south coast, and damage in Havana is normally less than elsewhere in the country.

On the night of July 8-9, 2005, the eastern suburbs of the city took a direct hit from Hurricane Dennis, with 100 mph (160 km/h) winds the storm whipped fierce 10-foot (3.0 m) waves over Havana's seawall, and its winds tore apart pieces of some of the city's crumbling colonial buildings. Chunks of concrete fell from the city's colonial buildings. At least 5000 homes were damaged in Havana's surrounding province . Three months later, on October 2005, the coastal regions suffered severe flooding following Hurricane Wilma.

Contemporary Havana can be described as three cities in one: Old Havana, Vedado, and the newer suburban districts. Old Havana, with its narrow streets and overhanging balconies, is the traditional centre of part of Havana's commerce, industry, and entertainment, as well as being a residential area.

To the north and west a newer section, centred on the uptown area known as Vedado, has become the rival of Old Havana for commercial activity and nightlife. Centro Habana, sometimes described as part of Vedado, is mainly a shopping district that lies between Vedado and Old Havana. The Capitolio Nacional marks the beginning of Centro Habana, a working class neighborhood, where a lot of buildings are almost in a total state of collapse . Chinatown and The Real Fabrica de Tabacos Partagás, one of Cuba's oldest cigar factories is located in the area.

A third Havana is that of the more affluent residential and industrial districts that spread out mostly to the west. Among these is Marianao, one of the newer parts of the city, dating mainly from the 1920s. Some of the suburban exclusivity was lost after the revolution, many of the suburban homes having been nationalized by the Cuban government to serve as schools, hospitals, and government offices. Several private country clubs were converted to public recreational centres.

Miramar located west of Vedado along the coast, remains Havana's exclusive area; mansions, foreign embassies, diplomatic residences, upscale shops, and facilities for wealthy foreigners are common in the area. The International School of Havana is located in the Miramar neighborhood.

In the 1980s many parts of Old Havana, including the Plaza de Armas, became part of a projected 35-year multimillion-dollar restoration project. The government sought to instill in Cubans an appreciation of their past and also to make Havana more enticing to tourists in accordance with the government's effort to boost tourism and thus increase foreign exchange.

History

The founding of Havana

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The Marimelena harbour view from Casablanca.

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Real Fuerza Fortress.

San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress.

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El Morro Fortress.

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Paseo del Prado leading to Parque Central.

File:Le parc central de La Havane.jpg

Centro Habana district.

File:Museo de la Revolución, Havana-Cuba.jpg

Museo de la Revolución.

The current Havana area and its natural bay were first visited by Europeans during Sebastián de Ocampo's circumnavigation of the island in 1509. Shortly thereafter, in 1510, the first Spanish colonists arrived from Hispaniola and began the conquest of Cuba.

Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded Havana on August 25, 1515 on the southern coast of the island, near the present town of Surgidero de Batabanó. Between 1514 and 1519, the city had at least two different establishments. All attempts to found a city on Cuba's south coast failed. The city's location was adjacent to a superb harbor at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, and with easy access to the Gulf Stream, the main ocean current that navigators followed when traveling from the Americas to Europe. This location led to Havana’s early development as the principal port of Spain's New World colonies. An early map of Cuba drawn in 1514 places the town at the mouth of the river Onicaxinal, also on the south coast of Cuba. Another establishment was La Chorrera, today in the neighbourhood of Puentes Grandes, next to the Almendares River.

File:Paseo de Prado, Havana.jpg

Paseo del Prado

The final establishment, commemorated by El Templete, was the sixth town founded by the Spanish on the island, called San Cristobal de la Habana by Pánfilo de Narváez: the name combines San Cristóbal, patron saint of Havana, and Habana, of obscure origin, possibly derived from Habaguanex, an Indian chief who controlled that area, as mentioned by Diego Velasquez in his report to the king of Spain. A legend relates that Habana was the name of Habaguanex's beautiful daughter, but no known historical source corroborates this version.

Havana moved to its current location next to what was then called Puerto de Carenas (literally, "Careening Bay"), in 1519. The quality of this natural bay, which now hosts Havana's harbor, warranted this change of location. Bartolomé de las Casas wrote:

...one of the ships, or both, had the need of careening, which is to renew or mend the parts that travel under the water, and to put tar and wax in them, and entered the port we now call Havana, and there they careened so the port was called de Carenas. This bay is very good and can host many ships, which I visited few years after the Discovery... few are in Spain, or elsewhere in the world, that are their equal...

Shortly after the founding of Cuba's first cities, the island served as little more than a base for the Conquista of other lands. Hernán Cortés organized his expedition to Mexico from the island. Cuba, during the first years of the Discovery, provided no immediate wealth to the conquistadores, as it was poor in gold, silver and precious stones, and many of its settlers moved to the more promising lands of Mexico and South America that were being discovered and colonized at the time. The legends of Eldorado and the Seven Cities of Gold attracted many adventurers from Spain, and also from the adjacent colonies, leaving Havana and the rest of Cuba largely unpopulated.

Pirates and La Flota

Havana was originally a trading port, and suffered regular attacks by buccaneers, pirates, and French corsairs. The first attack and resultant burning of the city was by the French corsair Jacques de Sores in 1555. The pirate took Havana easily, plundering the city and burning much of it to the ground. De Sores left without obtaining the enormous wealth he was hoping to find in Havana. Such attacks convinced the Spanish Crown to fund the construction of the first fortresses in the main cities — not only to counteract the pirates and corsairs, but also to exert more control over commerce with the West Indies, and to limit the extensive contrabando (black market) that had arisen due to the trade restrictions imposed by the Casa de Contratación of Seville (the crown-controlled trading house that held a monopoly on New World trade).

To counteract pirate attacks on galleon convoys headed for Spain while loaded with New World treasures, the Spanish crown decided to protect its ships by concentrating them in one large fleet, which would traverse the Atlantic Ocean as a group. A single merchant fleet could more easily be protected by the Spanish Armada. Following a royal decree in 1561, all ships headed for Spain were required to assemble this fleet in the Havana Bay. Ships arrived from May through August, waiting for the best weather conditions, and together, the fleet departed Havana for Spain by September.

This naturally boosted commerce and development of the adjacent city of Havana (a humble villa at the time). Goods traded in Havana included gold, silver, alpaca wool from the Andes, emeralds from Colombia, mahoganies from Cuba and Guatemala, leather from the Guajira, spices, sticks of dye from Campeche, corn, manioc, and cocoa. Ships from all over the New World carried products first to Havana, in order to be taken by the fleet to Spain. The thousands of ships gathered in the city's bay also fueled Havana's agriculture and manufacture, since they had to be supplied with food, water, and other products needed to traverse the ocean. In 1563, the Capitán General (the Spanish Governor of the island) moved his residence from Santiago de Cuba to Havana, by reason of that city's newly gained wealth and importance, thus unofficially sanctioning its status as capital of the island.

On December 20, 1592, King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City. Later on, the city would be officially designated as "Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies" by the Spanish crown. In the meantime, efforts to build or improve the defensive infrastructures of the city continued. The San Salvador de la Punta castle guarded the west entrance of the bay, while the Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro guarded the eastern entrance. The Castillo de la Real Fuerza defended the city's centre, and doubled as the Governor's residence until a more comfortable palace was built. Two other defensive towers, La Chorrera and San Lázaro were also built in this period.

17th-19th centuries

Havana expanded greatly in the 17th century. New buildings were constructed from the most abundant materials of the island, mainly wood, combining various Iberian architectural styles, as well as borrowing profusely from Canarian characteristics. During this period the city also built civic monuments and religious constructions. The convent of St Augustin, El Morro Castle, the chapel of the Humilladero, the fountain of Dorotea de la Luna in La Chorrera, the church of the Holy Angel, the hospital of San Lazaro, the monastery of Santa Teresa and the convent of San Felipe Neri were all completed in this era.

In 1649 a fatal epidemic brought from Cartagena in Colombia, affected a third of the population of Havana. On November 30, 1665, Queen Mariana of Austria, widow of King Philip IV of Spain, ratified the heraldic shield of Cuba, which took as its symbolic motifs the first three castles of Havana: the Real Fuerza, the Tres Santos Reyes Magos del Morro and San Salvador de la Punta. The shield also displayed a symbolic golden key to represent the title "Key to the Gulf". On 1674, the works for the City Walls were started, as part of the fortification efforts. They would be completed by 1740.

By the middle of the 18th century Havana had more than seventy thousand inhabitants, and was the third largest city in the Americas, ranking behind Lima and Mexico City but ahead of Boston and New York.

The city was captured by the British during the Seven Years' War. The episode began on June 6, 1762, when at dawn, a British fleet, comprising more than 50 ships and a combined force of over 11,000 men of the Royal Navy and Army, sailed into Cuban waters and made an amphibious landing east of Havana. The invaders seized the heights known as La Cabaña on the east side of the harbor and commenced a bombardment of nearby El Morro Castle, as well as the city itself. After a two month siege, El Morro was attacked and taken on 30 July 1762. The city formally surrendered on 13 August. It was subsequently governed by Sir George Keppel on behalf of Great Britain. Although the British only lost 560 men to combat injuries during the siege, more than half their forces ultimately died due to illness, yellow fever in particular.

The British immediately opened up trade with their North American and Caribbean colonies, causing a rapid transformation of Cuban society. Food, horses and other goods flooded into the city, and thousands of slaves from West Africa were transported to the island to work on the undermanned sugar plantations. Though Havana, which had become the third largest city in the new world, was to enter an era of sustained development and strengthening ties with North America, the British occupation was not to last. Pressure from London by sugar merchants fearing a decline in sugar prices forced a series of negotiations with the Spanish over colonial territories. Less than a year after Havana was seized, the Peace of Paris was signed by the three warring powers thus ending the Seven Years' War. The treaty gave Britain Florida in exchange for Cuba on the recommendation of the French, who advised that declining the offer could result in Spain losing Mexico and much of the South American mainland to the British.

After regaining the city, the Spanish transformed Havana into the most heavily fortified city in the Americas. Construction began on what was to become the Fortress of San Carlos de la Cabaña, the biggest Spanish fortification in the New World. The work extended for eleven years and was enormously costly, but on completion the fort was considered an unassailable bastion and essential to Havana's defence. It was provided with a large number of cannons forged in Barcelona. Other fortifications were constructed, as well: the castle of Atarés defended the Shipyard in the inner bay, while the castle of El Príncipe guarded the city from the west. Several cannon batteries located along the bay's canal (among them the San Nazario and Doce Apóstoles batteries) ensured that no place in the harbor remained undefended.

The Havana cathedral was constructed in 1748 as a Jesuit church, and converted in 1777 into the Parroquial Mayor church, after the Suppression of the Jesuits in Spanish territory in 1767. In 1788, it formally became a Cathedral. Between 1789 and 1790 Cuba was apportioned into an individual diocese by the Roman Catholic Church. On January 15, 1796, the remains of Christopher Columbus were transported to the island from Santo Domingo. They rested here until 1898, when they were transferred to Seville's Cathedral, after Spain's loss of Cuba.

Havana's shipyard (named El Arsenal) was extremely active, thanks to the lumber resources available in the vicinity of the city. The Santísima Trinidad was the largest warship of her time. Launched in 1769, she was about 62 meters long, had three decks and 120 cannons. She was later upgraded to as many as 144 cannons and four decks. She sank following the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. This ship cost 40.000 pesos fuertes of the time, which gives an idea of the importance of the Arsenal, by comparing its cost to the 26 million pesos fuertes and 109 ships produced during the Arsenal's existence.

As trade between Caribbean and North American states increased in the early 19th century, Havana became a flourishing and fashionable city. Havana's theaters featured the most distinguished actors of the age, and prosperity amongst the burgeoning middle-class led to expensive new classical mansions being erected. During this period Havana became known as the Paris of the Antilles.

The 19th century opened with the arrival in Havana of Alexander von Humboldt, who was impressed by the vitality of the port. In 1837, the first railroad was constructed, a 51 km stretch between Havana and Bejucal, which was used for transporting sugar from the valley of Guinness to the harbor. With this, Cuba became the fifth country in the world to have a railroad, and the first Spanish-speaking country. Throughout the century, Havana was enriched by the construction of additional cultural facilities, such as the Tacon Teatre, one of the most luxurious in the world, the Artistic and Literary Liceo (Lyceum) and the theater Coliseo.

Gas public lighting was introduced in 1848 and the railroad in 1837.

In 1863, the city walls were knocked down so that the metropolis could be enlarged. At the end of the century, the well-off classes moved to the quarter of Vedado. Later, they emigrated towards Miramar, and today, evermore to the west, they have settled in Siboney. At the end of the 19th century, Havana witnessed the final moments of Spanish colonialism in America, which ended definitively when the United States warship Maine was sunk in its port, giving that country the pretext to invade the island. The 20th century began with Havana, and therefore Cuba, under occupation by the USA. In 1906 the Bank of Nova Scotia opened the first branch in Havana. By 1931 it had three branches in Havana.

Republican period and Post-revolution

Under American influence, the city grew and prospered. Numerous residencies, luxury hotels, casinos and nightclubs were constructed since the 1930s to serve Havana's burgeoning tourist industry. Santo Trafficante, Jr. took the roulette wheel at the Sans-Souci, Meyer Lansky directed the Riviera, Lucky Luciano, the National Casino, and the Havana Hilton was Latin America's tallest, largest hotel. At the time Havana became an exotic capital of appeal and numerous activities ranging from marinas, grand prix car racing, musical shows, parks, etc.

Havana achieved being the Latin American city with the biggest middle class per-capita simultaneously accompanied by gambling and corruption where gangsters and stars were known to mix socially. During this era Havana was usually producing more revenue than Las Vegas. A gallery of black and white portraits from the era still adorns the walls of the bar of the National Hotel, including pictures of Frank Sinatra with Ava Gardner, Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper. In 1958 about 300,000 American tourists visited the city. One of the most well-known to the world was the American author Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), who quoted "in terms of beauty, only Venice and Paris surpassed Havana", Hemingway wrote several of his famous novels in Cuba and lived there the last 22 years of his life.

After the revolution of 1959 promises were made to improve social services, public housing, and official buildings; nevertheless, shortages that affected Cuba following Fidel Castro's abrupt declaration of Cuba as a one party communist state and with it the nationalization of all private property and businesses on the island (foreign and national), followed by the U.S. embargo, hit Havana especially hard. By 1966-68, the Cuban government had nationalized all privately owned business entities in Cuba, down to "certain kinds of small retail forms of commerce" (law No. 1076 [4]). Today much of the city is in a vast dilapidated state and crumbling, with its citizens not having the monetary ability nor the government authorization to preserve the old buildings from the effects of the tropical climate and occasional hurricanes.

Following a severe economic downturn after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and with it the end of the billions of dollars in subsidies the Soviet Union gave the Cuban government, many believed Havana's Soviet maintained government would soon vanish, as it happened in Eastern Europe. However, the socialist government increasingly turned to tourism for financial support. Most of this new tourism comes from Canada and western European nations, amounting to approximately 2 billion dollars annually according to National Geographic. An effort has gone into rebuilding Old Havana for tourist purposes and a number of streets and squares have been rehabilitated.

Government

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The 15 administrative divisions of Havana

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Ministry of Interior building in Plaza de la Revolucion.

Cuba is a communist state. The president is both chief of state and head of government, and proposes members of the cabinet of ministers. The unicameral National Assembly of People's Power comprises 614 members elected directly from slates approved by special candidacy commissions to serve five-year terms.

The national government is headquartered in Havana and plays an extremely visible role in the city's life. Havana is dependent upon the national government for much of its budgetary and overall political direction.

The all-embracing authority of the Communist Party of Cuba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Military of Cuba), the militia, and neighbourhood groups called the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), has led to a declining role for the city government, which, nevertheless, still provides such essential services as garbage collection and fire protection. The CDRs, which exist in virtually every street and apartment block, have two main functions: first, to actually defend the revolution against both external and internal opposition by keeping routine record of every resident's activities and, second, to handle routine tasks in maintaining neighborhoods.

Havana is one of the 14 Cuban provinces. Havana city borders are contiguous with the Habana Province. Thus Havana functions as both a city and a province. There are two joint councils upon which city and provincial authorities meet. One embraces municipal and provincial leaders on a national basis, the other, a Havana city and provincial council.

Havana city is administered by a city council, with a mayor as chief administrative officer.

Havana is divided into 15 constituent municipalities. Until 1976 there were six subdivisions, but in that year the city's borders were expanded to include the entire metropolitan area.

Economy

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Vedado, the city's financial center.

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Chinese cargo ship leaving the harbour

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José Martí International Airport.

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MetroBus articulated buses.

The Cuban Government adheres to socialist principles in organizing its largely state-controlled planned economy. Most of the means of production are owned and run by the government and most of the labor force is employed by the state. Recent years have seen a trend towards more private sector employment.

The government continues to balance the need for economic loosening against a desire for firm political control. It has rolled back limited reforms undertaken in the 1990s to increase enterprise efficiency and alleviate serious shortages of food, consumer goods, and services.

With an estimated per capita GDP of $11,000 in 2007, the average Cuban's standard of living remains at a lower level than before the downturn of the 1990s, which was caused by the loss of Soviet aid and domestic inefficiencies.

As a result of the extreme centralized economy by the communist regime there is an extreme economic stagnation seen throughout the city and countless buildings have become vacant, abandoned, and beyond repair.

In Havana Cuban-owned businesses and U.S.-owned businesses were nationalized and today most businesses operate solely under state control. In Old Havana and throughout Vedado there are a several small private businesses, such as shoe-repair shops or dressmaking facilities, but their number is steadily declining.

The National Bank of Cuba, headquartered in Havana, is the control center of the Cuban economy. Its branches in some cases occupy buildings that were in pre-revolutionary times the offices of Cuban or foreign banks.

Tourism’s association to the world of gambling and prostitution made the revolutionary government established in 1959 approach the entire sector as a social evil to be eradicated. Many bars and gambling venues were closed, and the National Institute of the Tourism Industry, took over many facilities (traditionally available to wealthy) to make them accessible to the general public.

As a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies in 1989 and early 90s, Cuba was plunged into a severe economic crisis. The answer, again, was found in tourism, and the Cuban government spent considerable sums in the industry to attract visitors. Following heavy investment, by 1995, the industry had become Cuba’s main source of income.

The traditional sugar industry, upon which the island's economy has been based for three centuries, is centred elsewhere on the island and controls some three-fourths of the export economy. But light manufacturing facilities, meat-packing plants, and chemical and pharmaceutical operations are concentrated in Havana. Other food-processing industries are also important, along with shipbuilding, vehicle manufacturing, production of alcoholic beverages (particularly rum), textiles, and tobacco products, particularly the world-famous Habanos cigars.

Havana has a network of suburban, interurban and long-distance rail lines, the only one in the Caribbean region. The railways are nationalised and run by the Union for Railways of Cuba.

Havana's Omnibus Metropolitanos (fleet is widely diverse in new and old donated bus models. The Metrobus division operates "camellos" (camels), which are trailers transformed into buses, on the busiest routes. The camellos are a Cuban invention after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

José Martí International Airport, located about 11km south of the city center, is Cuba's main international and domestic getaway. Havana remains Cuba’s main port, and most imports and exports pass through there, while it supports a considerable fishing industry.

Demographics

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The University of Havana.

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Beth Shalom Synagogue, the largest of Havana's three synagogues.

The city/province had 2,400,300 inhabitants in 2006, and the urban area over 3,710,100, making Havana the largest city in both Cuba and the Caribbean region.

People classified as white made up 65.1 percent of Cuba's population in 2002, mulatto and mestizo 24.8 percent, and black 10.1 percent. Spanish is the official language. In the era before Fidel Castro came to power, Havana was economically and ethnically divided. Whites tended to be more well-to-do, while blacks and mulattoes generally were poor.

Under the Castro government, educational and employment opportunities were made available to Cubans of all ethnic backgrounds, although top positions and fields of study were usually reserved only to signed communist party members.

The Cuban government controls the movement of people into Havana on the grounds that the Havana metropolitan area (home to nearly 20 percent of the country's population) is overstretched. There is a population of internal migrants to Havana nicknamed "Palestinos" (Palestinians); these mostly hail from the eastern region of Oriente.

Havana has a significant minority of Chinese, Russians mostly living in Habana del Este who emigrated during the Soviet era, and several thousand North African teen and pre-teen refugees.

Roman Catholics form the largest religious group in Havana. The Jewish community in Havana has reduced after the Revolution from once having embraced more than 15,000 Jews, many of whom had fled Nazi persecution and subsequently left Cuba to Miami or returned to Israel after Castro took to power in 1959. Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, and Santeria are also represented.

During the 1980s Cuba began to attract worldwide attention for its treatment of heart diseases and eye problems, some of this treatment administered in Havana. There has long been a high standard of health care in the city.

The University of Havana, located in the Vedado section of Havana, was established in 1728 and was once regarded as a leading institution of higher learning in the Western Hemisphere. Soon after Castro came to power in 1959, the university lost its traditional autonomy and was placed under the control of the government. The city's only other university, the respected Catholic University in Marianao, was closed after the revolution. Since then several other universities have opened, like the Polytechnic Institute "Joe Antonio Echeverria" where the vast majority of today's Cuban engineers are formed.

The vocational Cuban National Ballet School with 4,350 students is the biggest ballet school in the world and the most prestigious ballet school in Cuba , directed by Ramona de Sáa. In 2002 with the expansion of the school, out of 52,000 students interested to join the school, 4,050 were selected.

Of interest

José Martí Memorial, Plaza de la Revolución.

Parque Central.

Apartment buildings.

Square in La Habana Vieja.

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Great Theatre of Havana

[[Image:Lonja del Comercio, La Havane.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Lonja del Comercio

El Capitolio.

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Statue of the Republic, inside the Capitol.

Havana, by far the leading cultural centre of the island, offers a wide variety of features that range from museums, palaces, public squares, avenues, churches, fortresses (including the largest fortified complex in the Americas dating from the 16th through 18th centuries), ballet and from art and musical festivals to exhibitions of technology. The restoration of Old Havana offered a number of new attractions, including a museum to house relics of the Cuban revolution. The government placed special emphasis on cultural activities, many of which are free or involve only a minimal charge.

Landmarks include:

• Fortaleza San Carlos de la Cabaña, which is a fortress located on the east side of the Havana bay. It's walls were constructed (at the same time as El Morro) at the end of the 18th century.
• National Capitol Building, which was built in 1929 as the Senate and House of Representatives and said to be a replica of Washington DC's Capitol. This colossal building is recognizable by its dome which dominates the city's skyline. Inside stands the largest indoor bronze statue in the world representing Pallas Athena. Nowadays, the Cuban Academy of Sciences headquarters and the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (the National Museum of Natural History) has its venue within the building and contains the largest natural history collection in the country.
• Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro, which is a picturesque fortress guarding the entrance to Havana bay. The construction of the castle Los Tres Reyes del Morro was due to the step along in Havana of the English pirate Sir Francis Drake.
• San Salvador de la Punta Fortress, which is a small fortress built in the 16th century, at the western entry point to the Havana harbour. It played a crucial role in the defence of Havana during the first centuries of colonisation. The fortress still houses some 20 old guns and other military antiques.
• Christ of Havana, which is Havana's statue of Jesu much like the famous Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro. Carved from marble by Jilma Madera, it was erected in 1958 on a platform which makes a good spot from which to watch old Havana and the harbour.
• Great Theatre of Havana, which is famous particularly for the acclaimed National Ballet of Cuba. It sometimes hosts performances by the National Opera. The theater is also known as concert hall, Garcia Lorca, the biggest in Cuba.
• Malecón, Havana, which is the avenue that runs along the seawall built along the northern shore of Havana, from Habana Vieja to the Almendares River, forming the southern boundary of Old Havana, Centro Habana and Vedado.
• Museum of the Revolution, which is located in the former Presidential Palace, with the yacht Granma on display behind the museum.
• Colon Cemetery, which is one of the most famous cemeteries in Latin America, known for its beauty and magnificence. The cemetery was built in 1876 and has nearly one million tombs. Some of the gravestones are decorated with the works of sculptors of the calibre of Ramos Blancos, among others.

Culture

Old Havana

Old Havana, (La Habana Vieja in Spanish), contains the core of the original city of Havana, it is the richest colonial set of Latin America. Havana Vieja was founded by the Spanish in 1519 in the natural harbor of the Bay of Havana. It became a stopping point for the treasure laden Spanish Galleons on the crossing between the New World and the Old World. In the 17th century it was one of the main shipbuilding centers. The city was built in baroque and neoclassic style. Many buildings have fallen in ruin during the communist period in the later half of the 20th century, but a number are being restored. The narrow streets of old Havana contain many buildings, accounting for perhaps as many as one-third of the approximately 3,000 buildings found in Old Havana.

Old Havana is the ancient city formed from the port, the official center and the Plaza de Armas. Alejo Carpentier called Old Havana the place "de las columnas" (of the columns). The Cuban government is taking many steps to preserve and to restore Old Havana, through the Office of the city historian, directed by Eusebio Leal. Old Havana and its fortifications were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982.

Chinatown

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Barrio Chino in the Centro Habana district

[[Image:Barrio Chino de La Habana.jpg|thumb|Havana's Chinatown district. The paifang (arch) is located on Dragones street.]]

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Museum of the Revolution ballroom

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Museum of Fine Arts on Montserrate y Trocadero

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Ballet Nacional de Cuba during a permormance in the Great Theatre of Havana

Havana's Chinatown (Barrio Chino), once Latin America's largest and most vibrant Chinatown incorporated into the city by the early part of the 20th century when hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers were brought in by Spanish settlers from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan during the following decades to replace and / or work alongside African slaves. After completing 8-year contracts or otherwise obtaining their freedom, many Chinese immigrants settled permanently in Havana. The Chinatown neighborhood was booming with Chinese restaurants, laundries, banks, pharmacies, theaters and several Chinese-language newspapers, the neighborhood comprised 44 square blocks during its prime. The heart of Havana's chinatown is on el Cuchillo de Zanja (or The Zanja Canal). The strip is a pedestrian-only street adorned with many red lanterns, dancing red paper dragons and other Chinese cultural designs, there is a great number of restaurants that serve a full spectrum of Chinese dishes.

The Chinatown district has two paifang, a large one located on Calle Dragones, the materials were donated in the late 90s by the People's Republic of China , it has a well defined written welcoming sign in Chinese and Spanish. The smaller arch is located on Zanja strip. The Cuban's Chinese boom ended when Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution seized private businesses, sending tens of thousands of business-minded Chinese fleeing, mainly to the United States and abroad. Age, emigration and intermarriage have taken a toll on Havana's once flourishing Chinese community. While descendants are making efforts to preserve and revive the culture, the island's last pure Chinese are slowly disappearing into Havana's Chinese cemetery, taking with them part of Cuba's history.

Only one of what were once four Chinese-language newspapers remains in Havana, Kwong Wah Po, written by Abel Fung, member of the Promotional Group of Chinatown . The newspaper is not subject to state censorship. To tie in with the Revolution's economic reliance on tourism, attempts have recently been launched to attract revitalization investment for Chinatown from state-run enterprises of the People's Republic of China and overseas Chinese private investors, particularly Chinese Canadians. In addition, Chinatown is today the only area granted autonomy from many laws that govern the rest of Cuba. Restaurants, for example, are not state run nor are they subject to the laws of private restaurants in that they are allowed to have more than 12 seats as well as serve seafood.

Visual arts

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Carmen Bacallao de Marpica, 1883. Museo de las Bellas Artes

A small palace located on 17th Street and E, is the very well maintained neo-classical mansion of the Countess of Revilla de Camargo, today it is the Museum of Decorative Arts (Museo de Artes Decorativas), known as the small French Palace of Havana built between 1924 and 1927, it was designed in Paris by architects P. Virad and M. Destuque, inspired in French Renaissance. A lavish display of 18th and 19th century European treasures that recall a time when Havana was known as the Paris of the Antilles, and many luxury goods, including porcelain from Worcester, Meissen and Sevres, were imported

In the French room, a marble bust of Marie Antoinette smiles demurely, her graceful neck intact. There is another room full of Chinese screens, another one featuring English furniture and landspcape painting. For more than 40 decades the museum has been exhibiting more than 33,000 works dating from the reigns of Louis XV, Louis XVI, and Napoleon III; as well as XVI to XX Century Oriental pieces, among many other treasures. The Museum has ten permanent exhibit halls with works that range from the XVI to the XX centuries. Among them are prominent porcelain articles from the factories in Sèvres and Chantilly, France; Meissen, Germany; and Wedgwood, England, as well as Chinese from the Kien Lung period and Japanese from the Imari. The furniture comes from Leonard Boudin, Simoneau, Jean Henri Riesener and several others.

The National Museum of Fine Arts is a Fine Arts museum that exhibits Cuban art collections from the colonial times up to contemporary generation. There are two impressive buildings, one dedicated to Cuban Art and the Universal Art, in the former Asturian Center, the former Fine Arts Museum built in 1954 is dedicated exclusively to housing Cuba Art collections. Several museums in Old Havana contain furniture, silverware, pottery, glass and other items from the colonial period. A great one of these is the Palace of the General Captains, where Spanish governors once lived. The Casa de Africa presents another aspect of Cuba's history, an impressive collection of Afro-Cuban religious artifacts.

The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes containing works by Rubens, Goya and Velazquez is now closed for renovations; it is open to public at a temporary location on Calle Trocadero until renovations are complete. Other museums includes Casa de los Árabes and the Casa de Asia with Middle and Far Eastern collections. Many of these small boutiques museums are in elegant old Spanish architecture houses with airy courtyards. The Museo de Finanzas is more than an empty vault where dictator Fulgencio Batista once stashed his loot. A few old bank-notes are displayed on the walls. Havana's Museo del Automobil has an impressive collection of vehicles dating back to a 1905 Cadillac. In the Automobile museum there is also a Rolls Royce which belonged to Batista, near the 1960 Chevrolet that Che Guevara drove.

There Museum of the Revolution (Museo de la Revolución), designed in Havana by Cuban architect Maruri, and the Belgian Jean Beleu, who came up with an eclectic design, which harmoniously combines Spanish, French and German architectural elements. The museum was the Presidential Palace, today, its displays and documents outline Cuba's history from the beginning of the neo-colonial period. As most museums of Havana are situated in Old Havana few of them could also be found in Vedado. In total, Havana has around 50 museums, including the Museum of Fine Art, the Revolution and Decorative Arts; the National Museum of Music; the Museum of Dance and Rum; the Cigar Museum; the Napoleonic, Colonial and Oricha Museums; the Museum of Antropology; the Ernest Hemingway Museum; the Jose Marti Monument; Museums of Natural Sciences, the City, Archeology Museum, and Gold-and Silverwork. Also the Aircraft, Parfume, Pharmaceutical, Sports, Numismatic and Weapons Museums.

Performing arts

After the sun sets, Havana's performing arts come to life, facing the Central Park is the faux-baroque Great Theatre of Havana, a prominent theatre built in 1837 home of the National Ballet of Cuba and the International Ballet Festival of Havana, one of the oldest in the New World and remarkably was once the most technologically advanced in the world, thanks to the Italian scientist, Antonio Meucci.

It is said the experiments of the eccentric inventor who arrived in Havana in 1835 produced electrical lightning effects and an internal telephone system long before Edison or Bell. Meucci's ingenious spirit lives on in the theatre. Located in the Paseo de Prado in a building known as the Palacio del Centro Gallego. The façade of the building is adorned with a stone and marble statue. There are also sculptural pieces by Giuseppe Moretti, representing allegories depicting benevolence, education, music and theatre. The principal theatre is the García Lorca Auditorium, with seats for 1,500 and balconies. Glories of its rich history; the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso sang, the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova danced, and the French Sarah Bernhardt acted.

Another grand theatre is the National Theater of Cuba, housed in a huge modern building, decorated with works by Cuban artists. There are two main theatre stages, the Avellaneda hall and the Covarrubias hall, as well as a smaller theatre workshop space on the ninth floor. The Karl Marx Theater is the venue has an enormous auditorium with seating capacity of 5500 people, and is generally used for big shows by stars from Cuba and abroad. The theatre is also a major concert venue for both local and international artists; singer-songwriters such as Carlos Varela, Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés, are just a few of the famous artists who have graced this particular stage. More recently, this was the scene of a concert by British pop group The Manic Street Preachers.

Sports

Many Cubans are avid sports fans who particularly favour baseball. Havana's two baseball teams in the Cuban National Series are Industriales and Metropolitanos. The city has several large sports stadiums, the largest one is the Estadio Latinoamericano. Admission to sporting events is generally free, and impromptu games are played in neighborhoods throughout the city. Social clubs at the beaches provide facilities for water sports and include restaurants and dance halls.

• Havana was host to the 11th Pan American Games in 1991. Stadiums and facilities for this were built in the relatively unpopulated eastern suburbs.
• Havana was host to the 1992 IAAF World Cup in Athletics.
• Havana was a candidate to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, but was not shortlisted.

• Felipe Poey.jpg

  Felipe Poey
  zoologist
  (1799–1891)

• 

  José Martí
  leader of the Cuban independence from Spain
  (1853–1895)

• Henri and Maria Teresa of Luxembourg.jpg

  Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
  grand ducal consort of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg
  (1956–)

• Andy Garcia by David Shankbone.jpg

  Andy García
  actor
  (1956–)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Sources

• Havana: History and Architecture of a Romantic City. Alicia García Santana. Monacelli, October 2000. ISBN 1-58093-052-2.
• The Rough Guide to Cuba (3rd ed.). Rough Guides, May 2005. ISBN 1-84353-409-6.
• Barclay, Juliet (1993). Havana: Portrait of a City. London: Cassell. ISBN 1-84403-127-6 (2003 paperback edition). — A comprehensive account of the history of Havana from the early 16th century to the end of the 19th century.
• Carpentier, Alejo. La ciudad de las columnas (The city of columns). — A historical review of the city from one of the major authors in the iberoamerican literature, a native of this city.
• Cluster, Dick, & Rafael Hernández, History of Havana. New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2006. ISBN 1-4039-7107-2. A social history of the city from 1519 to the present, co-authored by a Cuban writer and editor resident in Havana and an American novelist and writer of popular history.
• Eguren, Gustavo. La fidelísima Habana (The very faithful Havana). — A fundamental illustrated book for those who wants to know the history of La Habana, includes chronicles, articles from natives and non natives, archives documents, and more.
• United Railways of Havana. Cuba: A Winter Paradise. 1908-1909, 1912-1913, 1914-1915 and 1915–1916 editions. New York, 1908, 1912, 1914 and 1915. Maps, photos and descriptions of suburban and interurban electric lines.
• Electric Traction in Cuba. Tramway & Railway World (London), 1 April 1909, pp. 243-244. Map, photos and description of Havana Central Railroad.
• The Havana Central Railroad. Electrical World (New York), 15 April 1909, pp. 911-912. Text, 4 photos.
• Three-Car Storage Battery Train. Electric Railway Journal (New York), 28 September 1912, p. 501. Photo and description of Cuban battery cars.
• Berta Alfonso Gallol. Los Transportes Habaneros. Estudios Históricos. La Habana, 1991. The definitive survey (but no pictures or maps).
• Six Days in Havana by James A. Michener and John Kings. University of Texas Press; 1ST edition (1989). ISBN 978-0292776296. Interviews with close to 200 Cubans of widely assorted backgrounds and positions, and concerns how the country has progressed after 90 years of independence from Spain and under the 30-year leadership of Castro.
• One more interesting note about that edition of the New York Times: On page 5, there is a short blurb mentioning, "The plan for holding a Pan-American exhibition at Buffalo has been shelved for the present owing to the unsettled condition of the public mind consequent upon the Spanish-Cuban complications." President McKinley was assassinated at the Pan-American Exhibition when it was finally held in 1901.

External links

Cuba Portal

• Encyclopaedia Britannica Havana Retrieved November 27, 2008.
• World Fact Book 2008 [5] Retrieved November 27, 2008.
• Havana City Map
• Travel guide to Havana from Wikitravel
• Map of Havana. To zoom in, click on an area of the map. These are very large High resolution JPEG images (~1 Megabyte)

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