| Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski La Habana | |
|---|---|
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| Hotel chain | Kempinski Hotels |
| General information | |
| Location | Havana, Cuba |
| Address | Calle San Rafael |
| Opening | 2017 |
| Management | Kempinski Hotels |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 246 |
| Number of suites | 50 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
The GranbHotel Manzana Kempinski La Habana is a luxury hotel in Havana, Cuba. It is located in the historic Manzana de Gómez building, an early-20th-century building that was Cuba's first shopping mall. The Kempinski Hotel chain, belongs to the oldest hotel groups in Europe, Kempinski Aktiengesellschaft.[1]
History
The structure was built by José Gómez-Mena Vila from 1894 to 1917[2] as the first European-style shopping arcade in Cuba. In many respects, it recalled the Covered passages of Paris, (French: Passages couverts de Paris) and are an early form of shopping arcade built in Paris, France primarily during the first half of the 19th century. By the 1850s there were approximately 150 covered passages in Paris but this decreased greatly as a result of Haussmann's renovation of Paris. Only a couple of dozen passages remain in the 21st century, all on the Right Bank.[1] The common characteristics of the covered passages are that they are: pedestrianized; glass-ceilings; artificially illuminated at night (initially with gas lamps); privately owned; highly ornamented and decorated; lined with small shops on the ground floor; connecting two streets. Originally, to keep the passages clean, each would have an artiste de décrottage (a shit-removal artist) at the entrance to clean the shoes of visitors. The passages were the subject of Walter Benjamin's incomplete magnum-opus Passagenwerk (Arcades Project) which was posthumously published.
The Manzana de Gómez was the first entire city block built in Cuba in the beginning of the 20th century completely for commercial use, with two inner diagonal streets that cross the building in all directions integrating the pedestrian circulation with the outer fabric. It is bounded by Neptuno, San Rafael, Zulueta and Monserrate streets.
Conversion
The structure was gutted and converted to a 246-room hotel by the Gaviota Group,[3] an arm of the Cuban military.[4] The hotel, operated by Kempinski Hotels, opened for business in May 2017[5][6] and celebrated its grand opening in June 2017.[3] The hotel features a ground floor shopping mall, with retail franchises including Versace, Giorgio Armani, Lacoste and Montblanc,[6] harking back to the building's origins.[7]
Gallery
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Corner of la Manzana de Gomez, ca. 1955 -
Manzana de Gómez, circa 1920
See also
References
- ^ "Kempinski contará con un segundo hotel en La Habana". Retrieved 2021-12-04.
- ^ Leopoldo Fornés Bonavía (2003). Cuba, cronología: cinco siglos de historia, política y cultura (in Spanish). Madrid: Editorial Verbum. ISBN 978-84-7962-248-0.
- ^ a b Inc., M. Shanken Communications. "Luxury Kempinski Hotel Opens its Doors in Havana - Cuba".
((cite web)):|last=has generic name (help) - ^ "Kempinski to Manage the Manzana Hotel in 2016". www.cubabusinessreport.com.
- ^ "Kempinski Press Room". www.kempinski.com. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
- ^ a b "Super Luxury Hotel Opens in Havana, Cuba - Havana Times.org". www.havanatimes.org. 23 May 2017.
- ^ "Cuba's first luxury hotel opens in Havana | DW | 23.05.2017".
Sources
- Cuba - Eyewitness Travel Guides (Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2004) ISBN 075660172X
- Havana (Lonely Planet Publications,2001) ISBN 1864502290
- The Odyssey Illustrated Guide To Cuba (Guidebook Company Ltd., 1995) ISBN 9622173705
External links
23°08′16.86″N 82°21′28.54″W / 23.1380167°N 82.3579278°W
