The Malecón is considered the best known urban image of the city

Speaking of Havana not mentioning the boardwalk is inadmissible because it has played an important role in its history and urban development, in addition to being the quintessential meeting place to enjoy love and friends

(Text and Photo: Felix Ruben Alomá)

It has also been the site chosen for concerts, marches, sports activities, festivals and art meetings … worth mentioning the Havana Biennial, and these days the news is that it has been elected for the “Spring in Havana” International Electroacoustic Music Festival.

According to various publications it was preceded in the early nineteenth century, when the population increased in the out skirting neighbourhoods, by the opening of the San Lazaro Avenue, to the hospital of the same name and the Espada Cemetery.

By 1891 the filling works began to build a tree-lined promenade, on the oceanfront from the Paseo del Prado to the Reina battery, but it was not until 1901 that construction started and that ofthe wall, and the first buildings on the oceanfront.

The Malecón became a possibility for expansion to the west, beyond the Almendares River and eastward through the tunnel under the bay. Hence it becomes the axis of communication entering the old and modern Havana.

The Havana Malecón is considered the best known urban image of the city, and from 2010 is part of the Master Plan, along with other addresses of the Office of the Historian of the City and in collaboration with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, who are responsible for the over eight kilometres along the coast of northern Havana to preserve its original structure.