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Cuban architecture. History of the Cuban house. They count the
cronists of the time that still by the end of the century XVI Havana was a
population of houses of straw and tables of cedar, surrounded by brave cane
walls, furnished very rudimentarily and illuminated by tallow candles. At that
time, the constructions of stonecutting were very rare and the parishes and
fortifications like the Castle of the Real Force were only made for. More ahead,
in century XVII, still the straw, the guano and the table predominated. But,
mainly in the rear area, the influences of the art began to feel Andalusian,
with much of morisco. Due to the shortage of resources and to the technical
difficulties, the artistic element hardly was taken in consideration in those
constructions characterized by the sobriety, simplicity and simplification of
the lines. A prolific and singular century. Nevertheless, century XVIII is
valued like prolific and peculiar of Cuban the domestic and city-planning
architecture, judging by the samples that have arrived to the present time. It
is during this century that arrives at the Island the baroque Spanish, towards
1775, when Havana had 75 thousand inhabitants hardly. The capital, of fortress,
becomes commercial and industrial large city. The group of simple houses and
huts around the Seat of Arms opens to the way to mansions and palaces that will
extend until exceeding with the years hard stones of the walls of the city. In
the last quarter of century XVIII takes place an economic blossoming -
translated to the other scopes that the expansion of solid and attractive
constructions causes. In this architectonic height the house is the one of more
precarious development if it is compared with constructions of government, monks
or public. Even so, in both lands they are begun to use beautiful Cuban wood
prodigally, combined with the limestone stone.
The ardent and humid climate, the properties of their stone, the distance of the
emitting centers of art and the low qualification of the craftsmen come together
to give baroque Cuban a peculiar expression, moved away of the peninsular
overflow. An example of it is the cathedral of Havana. The inner patio, very
expensive to the constructions of the time, shady, fresh, full of jets and
sources and surrounded by rooms, reaches its maximum use and splendor. The
neoclassic one in Cuba. Through Spain, in century XIX the neoclassic one arrives
at Cuba. This style dominated at that time in Europe and in his transfer it is
adjusted to the characteristics of the tropic, as it happened to previous
tendencies. The wood begins to be moved by the iron and stonecutting. The
balconies and handrails with forged and fused iron proliferate, adorned by
filigrees of great elaboration and beauty.
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