Vedado (, ) is a

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

and urban neighborhood in the city of

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 ...

. Bordered on the east by Calzada de Infanta and Central Havana, and on the west by the Alemendares River and Miramar / Playa district, Vedado is a more modern part of the city than the areas to the east, developed in the first half of the 20th century, during the Republic period. In 2016 it was described by one commentator as the city's "most affluent" section. The main street running east to west is Calle 23, also known as "La Rampa". The northern edge of the district is the waterfront seawall known as the

Malecón A jetty is a man-made structure that protrudes from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signify ...

, a famous and popular place for social gatherings in the city. The area popularly referred to as 'Vedado' consists of the wards (''consejos populares'') of Vedado, Rampa, Vedado-Malecón and Carmelo, all in the municipality of

Plaza de la Revolución Plaza de la Revolución (), "Revolution Square", is a municipality (or borough) and a square in Havana, Cuba. The municipality, one of the 15 forming the city, stretches from the square down to the sea at the Malecón and includes the Vedado ...

History

El Vedado was since the 16th century a part of the country where building was prohibited for military reasons. This changed in 1859 with the division of a piece of land in what would later be called el Carmelo. The land was divided with a tartan grid of 100 meter for the blocks and 16 meter for the streets. The main streets were 25 meters wide to make them suitable for a tram. Soon followed other urban areas: el Vedado in 1860 and Medina in 1883. And at the start of the First Republic the once forbidden land was parcelled in full. Línea street was intended to build the tram track. The Avenidas Paseo, Presidentes (calle G) and 23 where among the other important streets. The first buildings in this area were mainly bourgeois villas. In the thirties there was a first period of prosperity in which, among others, the López Serrano building and the

hotel Nacional "Hotel Nacional" ("National Hotel") is a song by Cuban-American recording artist Gloria Estefan. It was released as the second single from her studio album '' Miss Little Havana'' (2011). Written by Estefan, the song portrays the need to dance, g ...

were built. During the construction boom of the 1950s, dozens of tall apartment buildings were constructed. A famous building from that period is the Havana Hilton hotel, at that time the tallest hotel in Latin America.

Notable sites

Among the notable sites in Vedado are the hotels:

Hotel Nacional de Cuba The Hotel Nacional de Cuba is a historic Spanish eclectic architecture, Spanish eclectic style hotel in Havana, Cuba, opened in 1930. Located on the sea front of Vedado district, it stands on Taganana Hill, offering commanding views of the sea an ...

(National Hotel), the Havana Libre (former Hilton), Melia Cohiba Hotel and Hotel Riviera. In addition: * Colon Cemetery * FOCSA Building, tallest building in Cuba at 121 m * Edificio del Seguro Médico, Havana * López Serrano Building, first skyscraper in Cuba *

Radiocentro CMQ Building The Radiocentro CMQ Building complex is a former radio and television production facility and office building at the intersection of Calle L and La Rampa in El Vedado, Cuba. It was modeled after Raymond Hood's 1933 Rockefeller Center in New York ...

* Coppelia (ice cream parlor)''Cuba, the Test of Time''
/ref> *

Embassy of the United States, Havana The Embassy of the United States of America in Havana () is the United States of America's diplomatic mission in Cuba. On January 3, 1961, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower severed relations following the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s. In 197 ...

José Martí Anti-Imperialist Plaza José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

* Jewish religious centers include the Gran Sinagoga Bet Shalom and the Centro Hebreo Sefaradi * John Lennon Park, named for the statue of Lennon located there * Monument to the Victims of the USS ''Maine'' *

University of Havana The University of Havana (UH; ) is a public university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of Cuba. Founded on 5 January 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Originall ...

* National broadcast center for Cuban television. *Cementerio Chino (The Chinese Cemetery) Nearby neighborhoods include: * To the east: Central Havana * To the west: Miramar File:1909 Habana districts map by Baedeker.png Image:Cuba011.jpg,

File:Porton de entrada Cementerio de Colon.jpg,

Colon Cemetery, Havana El Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón (English: the Christopher Columbus Cemetery), also called La Necrópolis de Cristóbal Colón, was founded in 1876 in the Vedado neighbourhood of Havana, Cuba, to replace the Espada Cemetery in the Barrio de S ...

File:Hotel Habana Libre in Havanna, Kuba.jpg, Habana Libre Hotel López_Serrano_Building,_El_Vedado,_Havana.jpg, López Serrano Building File:Cine Yara.jpg,

Economy

Aero Caribbean Aero Caribbean (Empresa Aerocaribbean SA) was an airline based in Vedado, Plaza de la Revolución, Havana, Cuba. It operated scheduled domestic and international passenger services, and charter flights mainly within the Caribbean and South Amer ...

has its headquarters in Vedado. The Venezuelan airline

Conviasa Línea Aérea Conviasa (legally ''Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos'') is the flag carrier of Venezuela, with its headquarters on the grounds of Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, near Cara ...

has an office in the IACC Building in Vedado.

Government and infrastructure

'' Instituto de Aeronáutica Civil de Cuba'', Cuba's civil aviation authority, has its headquarters in Vedado.

Culture

Gay scene

23rd Street in Vedado is also the centerpoint of the city's gay scene in a country which now grants many rights to LGBT citizens. At night, 23rd St. is reminiscent of a gay district between the Cinema Yara and Coppelia ice cream parlor, and the foot of 23rd at the

, with numerous gay entertainment options nearby such as the Bim Bom outdoor bar and the Las Vegas nightclub. Many of the ''casas particulares'' target LGBT clients as customers.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

{{Coord, 23.1311111111, N, 82.3941666667, W, source:dewiki_region:CU-02_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title Wards of Havana Gay villages in Cuba