Caption
Havana has its share of concrete architecture. A historic metropolis originally filled with Spanish European BeauxArts and Nouveau Art Deco. When a post revolution era arrived, buildings were built from easy to source materials like concrete. This style of construction sometimes referred to as Brutalist architecture was functional socialist-modernistic architecture during the Soviet era of influence.
An aerial view over Central Habana’s Parque El Curita near El Capitolio, Havana’s neoclassical architectural centerpiece.
El Capitolio, or National Capitol Building in Havana, Cuba, was the seat of government in Cuba until after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and is now home to the Cuban Academy of Sciences. Its design and name recall the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.. Completed in 1929, it was the tallest building in Havana until the 1950s and houses the world's third largest indoor statue.
In the shadow of El Capitolio is Barrio Chino or Chinatown district revealing many abandoned buildings missing their roofs with its facades merely being propped up. Since the 1960s hundreds of buildings in the city were shuttered and left to weather the salty tropical humidity and annual lashing of Caribbean storms.