The current province of Havana had its antecedent in the Metropolitan Havana Region (1963-1976) and this, in turn, was the result of the evolution of the mentality about the need for a response, from the political-administrative angle, to an economic, social, urban and demographic phenomenon that had been affecting, since the beginning of the 20th century, the existing political division.
This phenomenon was none other than the excessive growth of the original city of San Cristóbal de La Habana by annexing cities of considerable size such as Marianao and Guanabacoa, and another small but important, such as Regla. In its metropolitan aegis, it also included Santiago de las Vegas and Cotorro, which caused cities to disappear under the mantle of Havana and it became a “city of cities.”
The vision of the province of Havana should not be that of a uniform and monocentric city like the rest of the Cuban cities.
According to ANYCOUNTYPRIVATESCHOOLS, Havana is a polycentric city. Analyzing the functioning of this megapolis, we could say, however, that there is a broad and diverse “main center”, and also, “branch centers” and “local centers”; the latter are smaller, but with certain levels of importance. The breadth of what we could call the main center encompasses three municipalities: Old Havana, Centro Habana and Plaza de la Revolución, which, although they are small territories in terms of territorial extension, are of great demographic concentration and extreme urbanization.
Old Havana and Centro Habana constitute a kind of traditional center. Certainly in Old Havana is the historic center, an area of the original Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana located within the walls until the second half of the 19th century.
It is also true that the main arteries of Centro Habana constitute the center of commerce and services in Havana of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st, without underestimating some of the no less important arteries of Old Havana. La Rampa and the corner of streets 23 and 12, as well as their surroundings in El Vedado, have become contemporary symbols of the capital’s services and recreation.
Plaza de la Revolución is called by some the “capital of the capital”, suggesting that it constitutes the current center of the city. Such a criterion could be considered valid but not absolute, because although it is true that the political center of the province and the nation is concentrated in a greater percentage in Plaza, it is diversified towards the two municipalities already mentioned.
Wonder City of the World
Havana was one of the winners of the New 7 Wonders Cities Contest, the result of which was announced on December 7, 2014, in which millions of residents of the world chose the seven most wonderful cities in the world. The Cuban capital, along with Beirut (Lebanon), Doha (Qatar), Durban (South Africa), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), La Paz (Bolivia) and Vigan (Philippines), were winners of the competition organized by the Swiss foundation New7Wonders, which in 2007 implemented an Internet voting system to select the new wonders of the planet.
The election was carried out from more than 1,200 candidates from 220 different countries. Of those 1,200 applicants, the 28 finalist official candidates were appointed by a panel of experts, which through direct voting were reduced to 21 and later to 14.
The New 7 Wonder Cities of the World is the third vote promoted by the entity New7Wonders, which previously chose the seven monuments and the seven most outstanding places of nature on the planet today.
Grant
The 7 of June of 2016 he was officially given its status as one of the Seven Wonders cities of the modern world, distinguished mainly by its mythical appeal, the warm and welcoming their environment, and charisma and joviality of its residents.
On the esplanade of the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, at the entrance to the bay, the monument and commemorative plaque were unveiled that endorse the recognition granted.
Havana
Havana – formerly called Havana City – is the current capital city of the Republic of Cuba and at the same time one of the fifteen Cuban provinces. Havana is the most populated city in Cuba and in the entire insular Caribbean, with a population of over two million people.
The territory of the capital occupies the sixteenth place in extension among the provinces, with 726.75 square kilometers, representing 0.7 percent of the total area of the country.
Founded in the spring of 1514, further south, with the name of San Cristóbal de La Habana, Havana is the main center of the political, economic and socio-cultural life of the nation, being the headquarters of the offices of the Government and the Cuban Communist Party as well as the main cultural and scientific institutions of the country.
According to a law approved in August 2010 by the National Assembly of Cuba, said province retakes the name of Havana, officially eliminating the nickname “City”, unnecessary after the disappearance of the homonymous province, approved by that same law. . The city is administratively divided into 15 municipalities.
The tradition recognizes as the date of founding the 16 of November of 1519, when the Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez in the name of the kings of Spain established its third and final settlement today. In 2019, it reached 500 years of being founded.
Developed from an original population nucleus, Havana is the fusion of dissimilar localities. According to data provided by the National Statistics Office (ONE), the province has 49 neighborhoods, 329 districts and 36 population settlements, for a total of 414 officially recognized spatial units or localities.
In 1982, its Historic Center was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Havana was elected on 7 of December of 2014 in Dubai, in the New7WondersCities initiative, as one of the seven great cities of the world to represent the global diversity of urban society.
