Walking Havana by Alejo Carpentier Along Different Routes

July 10, 2024

With a summer festival throughout the city of columns, the Routes and Walks project kicks off today in tribute to the 120th anniversary of the birth of Cuban intellectual Alejo Carpentier.

Until August 31st, the 24th edition will take place, sponsored by the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana (OHCH), and from which several proposals inspired by Carpentier will emerge, who defined Havana's architecture as a "style without style, which over time, through a process of symbiosis, amalgamates" (…) "into a peculiar Baroque style."

Routes and Walks this year will dedicate a large part of its agenda to the 505th anniversary of the founding of the town of San Cristóbal de La Habana.

This is the prelude to that celebration in which neighborhood projects, museum tours—which will connect diverse publics—, visits to historical and recreational sites, all with a single objective: to bring together and discover as a family what this city has to offer.

According to the OHCH program, the Tuesday sessions in its museum section offer the Route "Colonial Environments. Havana and Its Furniture," with tours through different institutions, including the Museum of Colonial Art, the Napoleonic Museum, the Museum of Sacred Art at the San Francisco Convent, and a variety of family options.

An enticing offer is that of the Museum of Contemporary Ceramics of Cuba, which invites visitors to the Ceramics Festival "Taking Shape," dedicated this time to chocolate and whose tour will take place in August.

As in each edition, Special Routes are planned, with visits to recreation centers and art and science teaching facilities.

Among them is the Special Route through La Quinta de los Molinos, which repeats every year, as well as the Special Route for the anniversary of the Hispano-American Center of Culture.

Also included are the Walks from Wednesday to Saturday, and here come into play Walking with the Walkers, the tour through Carpentier's Havana, and the one for the city's birthday.

Between walk and walk are found the virtual ones, specific activities for children, adolescents, and young people, as well as the usual summer workshops.