Havana, Cuba: Vedado Neighborhood

View Magnificent Mansions in Vedado and Walk to Revolution Square

Sep 23, 2008

Plaza de la Revolución, an 11-acre square on a slight hill in Havana, is surrounded by government ministries. It's a 30-minute walk up Calle Paseo from the Malecon.

In Vedado, which was modeled after Miami, the streets are divided into 100 meter long blocks or cuadras. Streets parallel to the ocean are given odd numbers and cross streets are named with letters (from A to P) or even numbers. Some streets have two names, an official name and a more commonly used one, because street names changed after the revolution. Vedado is easy to navigate: small stone blocks at street corners give coordinates.

Colonial houses with stained-glass windows and French-style mansions line Calle Linea, Vedado's oldest street. The tram line (Linea) once ran from here to Old Havana. Built between 1892 and 1901 by the Blanco Herrera family the Casona de Línea at No.505 was one of the first residences of El Vedado. Today it is the home of the legendary Teatro Estudio, that nurtured Cuba's most famous actors, writers and directors since 1958.

Calle Linea intersects with Calle Paseo, a lovely, wide avenue with a linear park in the middle leading up to the Plaza de la Revolucion. Casa de la Amistad at No.406 (17 y 19), Havana's first art deco house, was built in 1926 by Juan Pedro Baro with marble from Carrara, ornaments from Lalique and sand from the Nile. Baro had it built for the beautiful Catalina Laza, the first Cuban woman who divorced legally in Havana (to get married to Baro!) Today the mansion is run by the Cuban Ministry of Culture as a "friendship house". It was formerly the Cuban-Soviet friendship headquarters. It is open to visitors and has a simple snack bar in the garden. Further down Calle Paseo just before the intersection with Calle Zapata is a Memorial to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, the American couple executed in 1953 for passing secrets to the Soviet Union. The Cuban government holds a memorial service here each June 19.

Plaza de la Revolucion has been Cuba's political center since 1959. From the podium in front of the mighty Jose Marti Memorial Castro gave his famous 8-hour May day speeches to more than a million people.The Plaza is one of the world's largest city squares and its bleak monolithic architecture mimics the style of East Berlin during German Democratic Republic times. But the communists are not solely to blame for the concrete monotony, since most of the buildings went up in the Batista era (early 50es). A lift (extra charge) goes up to the top of the star-shaped memorial for an impressive 360-degree view of the city. The monument itself is the highest point in Havana. The facade of the Ministerio del Interior, the ministry in charge of national security and Cuba's most feared organization, is covered by a huge wire sculpture of Che Guevara and the words "Hasta la Victoria Sempre" (Until Victory Forever). At night the symbolic image inspired by the famous photograph taken by Alberto Korda is illuminated.

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