Читать книгу 100 Places in Cuba Every Woman Should Go - Conner Gorry - Страница 13

AS THE BEST-PRESERVED HISTORICAL CITY in the Americas, Habana Vieja is chock full of gorgeous buildings inside and out. Dating from the 16th century through the early 20th, some are in disrepair or falling down, more are downright crumbling, while many others gleam. Others still seem to be undergoing perpetual renovation. File under this last category the Capitol building. Anyone from the United States will feel an eerie déjà-vu beholding the Capitolio—it was modeled on the US Capitol and looks like a carbon copy, albeit flanked by palm trees, its marble plazas a beehive of activity with skateboarding kids, peanut sellers and photographers. Before construction began on this monumental public work, this was a military parade ground, a bullfighting ring, a botanical garden, and train station—the city’s first.

As soon as the first shovel hit the dirt, the Capitolio project was beset with problems, from the cost ($20 million US, all told), to accidents and delays—ground was broken in 1912, but the building wasn’t finished until 1929. According to Claudia Lightfoot in her exquisitely researched book Cities of the Imagination: Havana, “a large slice of the $20 million disappeared in graft and straightforward theft....one politician’s house, now the Museo Napoleónico in Vedado, was supposedly entirely built from materials filched from the site.” Patterns set in motion a century ago still hold strong: the refurbishment of the Museo de la Música (a building of eclectic styles dating from 1902) has been ongoing for more than a decade and many neighbors have improved their living spaces with materials from the construction site. The Capitolio itself has been undergoing renovations since 2012 (who knows in that time how many resources have been “detoured,” as Cubans say) and was opened to visitors as this book went to print. Insiders tell me it’s spectacular and that the time to see it is now while the renovation is fresh and accessible to the public—word on the street is that this building, long the headquarters of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and the Environment, will once again house the Parliament once the renovation is finally finished.

Everything about the Capitolio is over-the-top extravagant, from the grand marble staircase guiding people inside to its 300-foot high dome. The Statue of the Republic guarding the entrance hallway is enormous, weighing 49 tons and covered entirely in 22-carat gold leaf. It’s almost 65 feet tall and if the statistics are credible, it’s among the largest indoor statues in the world. If there was any doubt about Cubans’ propensity for flaunting their wealth and gains, no matter how ill-gotten, the Capitolio dispels it—quickly. No expense was spared in the construction and decor here. Says Cuban historian Ciro Bianchi, the diamond embedded in the floor (known as Kilometer 0—from this point all distances in Cuba are measured), is from the crown of the last Russian czar. What Bianchi doesn’t mention is that the diamond was stolen under mysterious circumstances—further providing evidence for the Cuban grift and graft stereotype that’s so pervasive. Ironically, the two statues flanking the stairway entrance are entitled “Labor” and “Virtue.” The czar’s diamond eventually graced the desk of President Grau. Today, the real gem is kept in a bank vault—or so they say. The Salon de los Pasos Perdidos (the Room of the Lost Steps, so called because the cavernous hall plays acoustic tricks on visitors, their footsteps being swallowed in their wake), with its arched, gilded ceiling and geometric marble floors, is breathtaking. I admit I’m a sucker for libraries—my first job out of university was at the San Francisco Public Library and I’ve had a romantic interlude or two in some closed stacks—but the one here will make even the hardest of heart swoon. It can all be a bit overwhelming and give you a stiff neck admiring all the friezes and finery; when you need a break, head to the tranquil interior garden, a hidden oasis few know about.