From Old time to Modern time
You will easily see after this Cuba Holidays that houses in the Vedado area of the Cuban capital and in Old Havana affect church windows that deck out intimate human spaces near huge staircases. These domiciles get a daily bath of colourfulness every morning, some of them depicting the bodies of Greek goddesses and seducing nymphs.
A similar spectacle happens on a regular basis in the inner patios of solares, the common living quarters that abound in the old part of town, inviting Cuba Holidays makers to stick in their heads and steal a long look. With their fan-shaped church windows usually decorating the upper doorframe, these solares are stylistically friendly when it comes to giving visitors a welcome salute.
Regardless of their capability to let sunlight through, their round shape lay out in four window panes (sometimes five), serve as perfect complements to the square form of the main gateways. Moreover, the screens that still divide rooms in many houses across the country speak volumes of the close-knit relationship between white wood and stained glasses. They came once to this land to stay for good and make no mistakes about it; they have been handed down from one generation to the next as venerated ornaments well taken care of. Taking pictures of this recreation of light will be the perfect souvenir to take home after this Caribbean Holidays in Cuba.
Nonetheless, only as part of this summer holidays in the country of light you will learn the new tendency of Cuban glass blowers that now take on new creations from a different approach as they use painted glass instead of stained fragments to make church windows. It is commonplace to see them putting together piece after piece, as if they were working on a huge puzzle that will eventually make up the most whimsical shapes. Thus, their skilled hands make butterflies, roses, lilies and even tocororos, the emblematic national bird of Cuba.
Sun Light with its mighty brightness and dancing rays will illuminate your Cuba Holidays
The restoration process that has brought a considerable number of architectural landmarks in Old Havana back to life has made Rosa Maria de la Terga, the area's professional glassmaker, aware of the esthetical value of her work. Your Cuba Holidays will also offer you the possibility of meeting this marvellous Cuban artist. Up to now, she has given lots of those stained glasses around town quite a new lease on life. A case in point is the Hostel del Frail (Hostal del Fraile), where white and violet hues put up defying triangular elements against the green squares and red circles. Or the House of Perfumes (Casa de los Perfumes), where the eyes get kind of dizzy before so many glassy friezes that run down from the ceiling all the way to the floor.
This amazing luxury holidays in Cuba will help you to state that all these comments simply boil down to the clear-cut assertion that church windows have mingled up with us in modern times. And they have done it with grandeur and elegance, without making the whole process sound like a blasphemy. After all, the sun is a hundred percent behind them, buffing them with its mighty brightness and dancing rays.
The best-preserved colonial town of the Western Hemisphere is pencilled in as an architectural gem of Iberian-American culture.
Chronicles of yesteryear report that Spanish conquistador Diego Velazquez was looking for a quiet and lovely place, as same as you do, to enjoy the 1513 Holiday Season of his Caribbean holidays on this island of dreams called Cuba.
While spending this luxury holidays in Cuba you will know the history of his passion for conquer this island. He had already founded the villages of Asuncion of Baracoa and San Salvador de Bayamo on the eastern side of the country. Yet the lavishness of that wild vegetation so full of surprises prompted him to scour the rest of the island and eventually settle down in the south central portion, just by the Guaurabo River. That was a location where he could rely on the aboriginal workforce to make the fertile lands yield much better fruits, let alone the possibility of having three well-protected seaports in the vicinity from where to unload supplies and launch out expeditions.
Before so many possibilities and attractions, Don Diego Velazquez made up his mind and founded the Village of the Holy Trinity in January 1514, exactly 494 years ago. Nearly five centuries later, Trinidad is recognized as a Cultural Heritage of Mankind, a high distinction granted by UNESCO.
Trinidad: the Museum City of the Caribbean
Even though time has ticked by relentlessly through all these centuries, the city of Trinidad still boasts the grandeur that made it the precious gem of central Cuba and one of the most beautiful destinations of this Cuba Holidays. In the so-called Museum City of the Caribbean, every architectural element and every street cobblestone is well taken care of in an effort to make the town look as genuine as it was during the colonial rule. This legitimate place, where time seems to be standing still (for the better rather than for the worse), gets the credits for being an example of cultural heritage, not only from an architectural standpoint, but also from a traditional and autochthonous point of view.
Those who visit Trinidad while enjoying their Christmas holidays in Cuba get dazzled by the manual skills of weavers and embroiderers. Artisans that turn gunny, palm leaves and guaniquiqui –vegetable fibbers that are commonplace in the region- into purses, handbags and hats really sweep tourists off their feet as their cameras keep clicking time and again, capturing one colonial postcard after another. This is the best opportunity of buying traditional souvenirs of what would be the best Cuba Holidays you ever enjoyed. The cobblestone-paved and sometime narrow streets are swarmed over by these men and women who offer countless souvenirs and keepsakes made of clay and wood, most of them showing off distinctive elements of the local culture and history.
One of the things that Cuba Holidays makers love the most about Trinidad is sustainability, the fact that the town actually looks like a living museum that goes hand in hand in perfect harmony with the daily life of its residents. Behind house gates that resemble lace filigrees, families go on with their everyday chores as they faithfully watch out for the city's preservation. From windows that are usually wide open, these friendly and hospitable people welcome visitors and belt out their traditional Trinitarian tunes when the night closes in.
Both in lodging facilities and in many homes offering tourists bed and breakfast, execs and proprietors go the extra mile to keep the exquisiteness of the Cuban cuisine intact, in which pork meat, rice, black beans, seasoned cassava and salad are washed down with schooners of icy suds. Your Caribbean Holidays in Cuba are going to be even better after you taste the delicious traditional Cuban meal and drinks.
All of Trinidad invites Cuba Holidays makers to take a grand tour on this summer holidays.
All of Trinidad invites Cuba Holidays makers to take a grand tour, starting out from Main Square –built by the Spaniards when they founded the city and still flashing the same beauty and elegance of the 16th century architecture. The plaza and its benches bring back memories of a time when street peddlers and fruit vendors used to hawk their items out loud, while female slaves escorted well-heeled senoritas during their morning and afternoon strolls. The royal palm, Cuba's national tree, provides a refreshing shadow that everyone appreciates as it spruces up this human settlement where colonial mansions of peculiar architectural elements, neoclassical ornamentation, murals, huge doorframes, wooden jambs and lovely wrought-iron gates were built long before anyone can now remember.
The Brunet Palace is place that you can not miss on this all inclusive holidays in Cuba; this is a good case in point of what this magnificent splendour is actually like. Standing on one of the main square corners, the mansion now houses the Romantic Museum, a facility that has undergone some revamping through the years, yet it still preserves many of the original features that brought it to life in 1808. The Major Parish and other small palaces, treasuring museum,-like pieces and artefacts, round up the surroundings.
Once you are in Trinidad spending this full of art and architecture Cuba Holidays you will appreciate how this two manifestations are mixed in Cuban culture. As far as popular culture is concerned, the city is home to over thirty festivals, including the Trinitarian Carnival or the San Juan Festivity, in which charangas, the Spanish performing arts and the black folksy theatre are the name of the game. The Ribbon Dance –originally performed around a tree, but it spilled onto the streets under the moniker of El Cocuye Dancing Parade as time rolled on- is worth a long look.
The Royal Congo Town Hall, a clear-cut expression of African roots, came to stay in this region as a result of the need for strong and healthy workforce that Spaniards brought from the black continent onto the sugarcane fields. This blend of elements makes Trinidad a landmark trapped between the mountains and the sea, a place that a good deal for spending the best of your Caribbean Holidays as it is regarding experts believes the best-preserved village of the Americas.
As a matter of fact, this is a hard-to-forget town for those eager to take a firsthand look at ancient architecture, legends and traditions, the very cultural roots of a nation born out of the mixture of different races during their Cuba Holidays.
Visiting the Valley of Mills: a wonderful experience
Trinidad village's development was basically owed to the increase of the sugar industry, a condition that made several dozen mills spring up in the vicinity of the Valley of San Luis, a breathtaking mountain-hedged spot by the Agabama River. This is a place that you have to visit during this unique Caribbean Holidays in Cuba. Hand in hand with the advance of the sugar industry, many families made a killing and played a major role in a number of economic and social shake-ups that came to pass later on. Former chronicler Ramon de la Sagra once wrote, "The entire Trinidad Valley belongs to a handful of estate owners that has carpeted the whole area with sugar mills and stock breeding grounds, leaving almost no land at all for other minor crops on the premises." The same reporter noted down as early as 1860 that the lands near the Valley of Mills had already lost the necessary fertility for the growing of sugarcane.
This unhelpful condition, coupled with the development of seaports in the near town of Cienfuegos that were fully open to free trade, snatched Trinidad from its privileged stance. Former sugar mills began to fade out and the vast fields narrowed down to simple one-mill colonies. Times has ticked by since then, yet the legend of the Valley of Mills, plus a bunch of mansions, plantations, getaways and workhouses are still standing taller than ever before. Only as part of this summer holidays in Cuba you will have the chance of feeling like you are travelling in time and experiencing the Cuban Colonial times.
Every Cuba Holidays makers can still feast eyes on an old remnant of Trinidad's glory days: the graceful belfry resting atop the dome of the Manacas-Iznaga Sugar Mill, declared a National Monument. The former Bella Vista Sugar Mill, built in the 1840s by tycoon Don Pedro Malibran under the purest Roman style, is another major standout.
And do not miss out on the chance of dropping by the Cuban-style Guaimaro Mill, one of the sugar-making giants of the times. The dregs of the Manacas-Iznaga living quarters feature the huts of an ancient slave hamlet, considered one of the largest cloisters of its kind until 1857. The motley vegetation of the Valley of Mills casts its magic spell all over these relics that still spin quite a good yarn about this exciting episode of Cuba's history that you will witness thanks to this wonderful Cuba Holidays.
After living the unforgettable experiences of your Caribbean Holidays in Cuba you will easily jump to the conclusion that Cuba is an architectural paradise. There are a lot of places not only in Havana and Cienfuegos but also all around the island that are true examples f the beauty of Cuban architecture. Therefore, as there are many others places which are worth stealing a peek at. Let's get this show on the road, shall we?
