Paseo del Prado

The Paseo del Prado divides Havana into two halves with its wide, pedestrian promenade paved in terrazzo and shaded by bronze lions. Originally designed in seventeen seventy-two, this boulevard served as the city’s primary entrance from the harbor. In nineteen twenty-eight, the landscape architect Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier lined the walkway with those cast-iron lions, which still guard the path today. During the afternoon, local painters hang their canvases on the iron railings, while neighbors sit on the stone benches to talk.