Paseo del Prado is a street and promenade in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, near the location of the old city wall, and the division between

Centro Habana Centro Habana is one of the 15 municipalities or boroughs (''municipio''s in Spanish) in the city of Havana, Cuba. There are many retail spaces (such as ''Plaza de Carlos III'' commercial center, office buildings, hotels, bars and clubs (such as th ...

and

Old Havana Old Havana ( es, link=no, La Habana Vieja) is the city-center (downtown) and one of the 15 municipalities (or boroughs) forming Havana, Cuba. It has the second highest population density in the city and contains the core of the original city of ...

. Technically, the Paseo del Prado includes the entire length of Paseo Martí approximately from the Malecon to Calle Máximo Gómez, the Fuente de la India fountain. The promenade has had several names; it was renamed Paseo de Martí in 1898 with the island's independence from Spain. Despite the historic references, the people of Havana simply call it "El Prado".

History

Construction of the first European-style boulevard in Havana, the first street of its type outside the city walls, was proposed by Don Felipe Fons de Viela y Ondeano in 1770, and work was completed in the mid-1830s during the term of Captain General ( es, Capitanía General de Cuba) Miguel Tacón y Rosique (1834–1838) who was also responsible for the

Paseo de Tacón The Paseo de Tacón, or Paseo Militar, was created by the Captain General ( es, Capitanía General de Cuba) Miguel Tacón y Rosique (1834–1838) who promoted the reform of the “road” that, starting from the calles of San Luis de Gonzaga (Rein ...

, the Plaza del Vapor and the

Tacón Theatre The Teatro Tacón (Tacón Theatre) opened in 1838 in Havana, Cuba. Its auditorium contained 2,750 seats. It was built by , a businessman from Barcelona who moved to Havana, and named after Miguel Tacón y Rosique, Governor of Cuba from 1834 to ...

. in 1925 French landscape architect

Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier (9 January 1861 in Aix-les-Bains – 26 October 1930 in Paris) was a French landscape architect who trained with Adolphe Alphand and became conservator of the promenades of Paris. Works Forestier developed an arb ...

redesigned the Paseo del Prado, lined it with trees, bronze sculptures of lions, coral stone walls and marble benches. The bronze lions were added in 1928. The Lions were commissioned by President Gerardo Machado. They were authored by French sculptor Jean Puiforcat and Cuban-born master caster Juan Comas Masique, who used the metal from decommissioned cannons to forge the lions. Lining the boulevard are important buildings such as the Gran Teatro de La Habana, hotels (including the Hotel Sevilla), cinemas such as the Faust

theaters, and mansions imitating styles from

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, París and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. El Prado was the first paved street in Havana. When

El Capitolio El Capitolio, or the National Capitol Building (''Capitolio Nacional de La Habana''), is a public edifice in Havana, the capital of Cuba. The building was commissioned by Cuban president Gerardo Machado and built from 1926 to 1929 under the ...

was built in 1929 that section of the promenade was removed. At the corner of Cárcel street the car dealership ''Packard & Cunnigham'' was located, and in 1940 the radio network

RHC-Cadena Azul Radio Habana Cuba-Cadena Azul (lit. "''Radio Havana Cuba-Blue Network''") was a Cuban radio network operating in various forms from 1939 until 1954. It was a heated rival of radio network CMQ. History Origins RHC was created in 1939 by Felix O'Sh ...

established its studios on the Prado.

Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier

Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier (9 January 1861 in

Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains (, ; frp, Èx-los-Bens; la, Aquae Gratianae), locally simply Aix, is a commune in the southeastern French department of Savoie.

– 26 October 1930 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

) was a French landscape architect, who trained with Adolphe Alphand and became conservator of the promenades of Paris. Forestier was the landscape architect of El Prado and had moved to Havana from France for five years to collaborate with architects and landscape architects on various projects throughout the city including the design of the gardens for the Capitolio. He worked on the master plan of the city with the aim to create a harmonic balance between classical forms and the tropical landscape of Havana. He embraced and connected the city's road network while accentuating prominent landmarks through a series of parks, avenues, "paseos," and boulevards which 50 years later proved to be a direct contrast to the

Havana Plan Piloto The Havana Plan Piloto was a 1955–1958 urban proposal by Town Planning Associates, which included Paul Lester Wiener, Paul Schulz, the Catalan architect Josep Lluis Sert, and Seely Stevenson of Value & Knecht, Consulting Engineers, seeking ...

of Josep Lluis Sert which was influenced by CIAM planning principles. The Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne (CIAM), was an organization founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged across Europe by the most prominent architects of the time, with the objective of spreading the principles of the

Modern Movement Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

focusing in all the main domains of architecture, landscape architecture, urbanism, industrial design, and many other design practices. Nicolas Forestier's influence has left his mark on Havana; many of his ideas were cut short by the Great Depression of 1929.

Deterioration

The Paseo del Prado had been a replacement for the first promenade in the City of La Alameda de Paula which was built around 1776 by Antonio Fernández Trevejo. By the 1950s, families were moving from the Prado to Miramar and other parts of the city such as the

Vedado Vedado ( es, El Vedado, ) is a central business district and urban neighborhood in the city of Havana, Cuba. Bordered on the east by Calzada de Infanta and Central Havana, and on the west by the Alemendares River and Miramar / Playa distric ...

and Siboney. After the 1959 revolution, the Prado streets and many of its buildings were, like the majority of buildings in Havana, physically deteriorated to the point that many collapsed and remain to this day in a ruined state.

Gallery

File:Paseo del Prado (Havana) 5.jpg File:Paseo del Prado (Havana) 2.jpg File:Paseo del Prado 2 (3217433651).jpg File:Paseo del Prado (l'Havana).JPG File:Panoramic image of the Prado. Havana, Cuba. ca 1925.jpg, Panoramic image of the Prado. Havana, Cuba. ca 1925 File:Havana - Monumento a Zenea.jpg, circa 1918 File:El_Prado_1._Havana,_Cuba.gif, circa 1920 File:Havana - Marti Avenue.jpg, circa 1930

Notes

References