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Paseo del Prado is a street and promenade in
Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
, near the location of the old city wall, and the division between Centro Habana and Old Havana. 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 () Miguel Tacón y Rosique (1834–1838) who was also responsible for the Paseo de Tacón, the Plaza del Vapor and the Tacón Theatre. in 1925 French landscape architect Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier redesigned the Paseo del Prado, and 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 List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
, París and
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
. El Prado was the first paved street in Havana. When El Capitolio 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 established its studios on the Prado.


Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier

Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier (9 January 1861 in
Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains (, ; ; ), known locally and simply as Aix, is a Communes of France, commune in the southeastern French Departments of France, department of Savoie.Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
) was a French
landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...
, 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 t ...
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 was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
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 The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
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 (, ) is a central business district and urban neighborhood in the city of Havana, Cuba. Bordered on the east by Calzada de Infanta and Centro Habana, Cuba, Central Havana, and on the west by the Alemendares River and Miramar, Havana, Mir ...
and Siboney. After the 1959 revolution and the ongoing U.S. embargo against Cuba, 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


See also

*
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 t ...
* La Alameda de Paula, Havana * Paseo de Tacón * Fuente de la India


Notes


References

{{Authority control Gardens in Cuba Tourist attractions in Havana Streets in Havana Buildings and structures in Havana History of Havana