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Havana, Cuba's capital, is an ancient city that is slightly over 500 years old. Among the characteristics of its old city layout are the squares, almost always created for commercial purposes back in the 16th century.
One of them is Plaza Vieja, created in 1559 to place a market there and to host public festivities. It was conceived as a regular shape based on the size of the plots officially adopted in the time, but the final result was a trapezoidal space that maintained the proportions originally proposed. Another distinctive feature, compared with American squares, is that neither the church nor the town hall would be located in this area.
Nevertheless, the plaza space would remain abandoned for almost two decades, and in 1577 the town council decided, given the rapid demographic increase, to divide it into plots and set them for rent. In 1587, the town council recovered that same space originally destined for the plaza (once and for all) to be used for commercial activities, public festivities and bullfights.
© Karel Miragaya/123RF
The architectural and urbanistic ensemble is represented by valuable colonial constructions of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and some examples of the first decades of the 20th century that maintain a stylistic unity with the rest. Since the 17th century, the first two-story houses with portals had begun to rise in the square; in fact, at least four of the nine tall houses that existed in its surroundings had portals. In the 18th century, the pace of construction rapidly transformed the square and between 1729 and 1756 nine portals were erected that accompanied the consolidation and maturity of a type of manor house with porticoes, vestibules, mezzanines, high halls covered with Mudejar ceilings, wide stairways and interior courtyards with galleries. The best example that still survives today is the old house of the Counts of Jaruco, built on one of the corners between 1733 and 1737, where the Cuban storyteller Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo, known as the Countess of Merlin, was born.
In 1709, the city's first fountain with a circular cup was located in the center, conceived both to supply water to the market and, as recorded in the Chapter Acts of the Havana City Council, for "the greater adornment and cleanliness of this city."
© Roxana Gonzalez/123RF
Starting in the 1980s, once Old Havana was declared a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO, architects and restorers were determined to save Plaza Vieja. For the paving of the urban space, marble borders were used to represent the place where the stalls of the Reina Cristina Market, created there in 1835, once stood.
At present it's the scene of various activities, including street theater shows, plastic arts presentations and circus performances. It's also a favorite place for tourists and nationals who like to stroll in its surroundings. There are plenty of bars, restaurants around; but also museums and public offices of cultural institutions. It has a very colorful general aspect and gives a beautiful image of splendor and tranquility.