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Havana - Cuba's World Heritage Capital
Havana is a grid-plan city, making it easy to navigate its broad avenues and side streets, originally lined with splendid churches and mansions of the city's former aristocracy. They have suffered greatly from neglect, and many are now crumbling and decrepit.
For three hundred years, urban life in the Cuban capital took place intramuros, or "within the city walls". Then, in the early nineteenth century, a building boom began. Havana's city walls were pulled down to facilitate city planning and road building between the old Intramuros Plaza and the newer Extramuros Plaza.
Gateway to the New World.
The city of Havana was founded in 1515 where the Cuban capital stands today. Its naturally protected harbour began operation slightly later, in 1519. Havana's central Caribbean location was a boon to the city's development.
All the important trade routes to and from Mexico and Peru passed through here. Havana was named the capital of the Cuban colony in 1607 and unofficially proclaimed the gateway to the New World. Although its population would remain in check for a century or more, its progress as a commercial and political centre was continuous and uninterrupted.
Hemingway's Cuba.
In the early twentieth century, American Prohibition brought tourism of a sort to Havana for the first time.
The Caribbean metropolis, especially the Vedado district, where the 142-metre tall memorial to national hero Jose Marti stands, became a jet set stomping ground where everyone could enjoy a bottle of rum, an aromatic cigar and a little salsa dancing.
Ernest Hemingway was drawn to Havana, and many of his novels were written here. He was locally famous for downing a glass or two and smoking a thick Havana cigar. The long Cuban party ended on New Year's Eve in 1959, when rebels under the command of Fidel Castro marched into the city.
There are still nightclubs in, modern-day Havana, once again attracting thousands of visitors. La Habana Vieja (Old Havana) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. Some of its loveliest buildings were converted into museums. Visitors looking for culture will find that the city has churches, palaces, castles, monuments and markets.
Cathedral Plaza is a popular attraction and one of the most beautiful squares in the city. The steeples of the Cathedral of San Cristobal de La Habana dominate the look of the square. Not far from the square is the 1588 Real Fuerza Castle, the oldest surviving colonial fortress in the New World. The Plaza de las Armas, its streets lined with swaying royal palms, has been the Cuban centre of power and government for four hundred years. The majestic Capitanes Generales Palace, home of the National Museum, is on the west side of this plaza. It is one of the grandest buildings in Cuba.
Hand-Rolled Cigars.
Central Havana functioned as the red light district of the city prior to the Revolution; currently one might rather say it glows in pale pastels. Visitors tend to avoid this area as a rule, most preferring to stick to the comforts of the Vedado district and the famous attractions of Old Havana. There is nevertheless a great deal to see in central Havana. The district is dominated by the monumental El Capitolio Nacional, built as a more ornate twin of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. as if to mock capitalism.
Havana's oldest cigar factory is located on the west side of the Capitolia. The approximately 400 people employed here continue to roll cigars the old-fashioned way, by hand.
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