Architectural Modernism in Cuba: port, gardens, and façades… 

July 18, 2025

By Ferran Garcés 

What was happening in the rest of the world while Gaudí was building Torre Bellesguard, between 1900 and 1909? Today we propose a short route through Cuba during this period. A journey we’ve split into two articles. Stay tuned for the second part next Friday! 

For the Caribbean island, it was an important moment, as it coincided with the early years of its Republic, established in 1902 after the War of Independence in 1898. For Catalonia too. The chronicler Carles Martí, in a book written in 1918, tells us about more than 15,000 Catalans settled in Cuba, many of them involved in construction and trade (1). The rise of “Havana modernism” took place then, to the point that some authors refer to it as “the Catalan era” (2). An intense but brief era. The year 1919 marks its twilight, although its decline could already be sensed a few years earlier. 

First stop: the Malecón and the Cueto Palace 

Most of the “Catalan-style” houses were concentrated in Havana, specifically near its port, in the area known as Habana Vieja. This made sense, as at the time the port was the island’s main gateway. Construction of the famous Malecón began in 1901, and the first “Catalan-style” houses were built around 1904. 

Unfortunately, many of them were destroyed shortly after being built (3). Among the survivors, the Cueto Palace stands out, completed in 1908 by Cuban master builder Arturo Marqués, although it too nearly disappeared in the 21st century. The author of a study presented in 2009, speaking of this and similar buildings, wrote: “the set of modernist works that the City of Havana possesses today is still in a worrying state of degradation and even imminent disappearance” (4). Fortunately, the Cueto Palace, now transformed into a luxury hotel, has survived. 

From that era, there is a curious document. Curious because it’s a critique signed by Alejo Carpentier, one of Cuba’s greatest novelists. In 1941, looking back, he said: “To our misfortune, the Malecón was filled with houses at a time when Catalan contractors wreaked havoc on our avenues and neighborhoods, with their columns bought wholesale and balustrades sold by the meter” (5). 

The last part of the text refers to the fact that most Catalan designers and craftsmen specialized in prefabricated elements, thanks to the new cement technique, which allowed any decoration to be reproduced more quickly and, consequently, at lower cost. Carpentier uses the word “contractors” because many of them were not architects but builders specialized in renovating colonial-style façades with modernist-looking moldings: balustrades, columns, corbels, or “funerary monuments,” as seen in an advertisement by Mario Rotllant, a cabinetmaker who became Cuba’s most famous builder (6). While the exterior appeared modernist, as historian Montserrat Villaverde observes, “The configuration of the interior spaces of the buildings followed the basic principles of late 19th-century architecture, and generally without significant modifications” (7). 

Second stop: Los Jardines de la Tropical 

The first major work in the new style, according to various sources, was Los Jardines de la Tropical. Its inauguration took place in 1904, the year Gaudí had already completed the main house of Torre Bellesguard. Interestingly, Ramón Magriña i Alsina, the creator of these Caribbean gardens, like Gaudí, was born in Reus. Like other Catalans, he specialized in artificial stone and all kinds of cement ornamentation, but his true passion was gardening. For this reason, he lived in the gardens to care for them better (8). 

In a short time, the gardens—which included a castle and the Tropical beer factory, owner of the land—were expanded with various leisure and entertainment spaces, such as artificial grottos, labyrinths, picnic areas, gazebos, bars, and even a hall inspired by the Alhambra in Granada. Some authors have noted similarities with Park Güell, a work by Gaudí begun in 1900 and completed in 1914, but inaugurated as a public park in 1926. Consequently, according to Cuban sources, these gardens were not a copy, as they were inaugurated earlier (9). In reality, they share the same aesthetic, cultural, and commercial framework, which encouraged similarities despite local differences. 

Third stop: the Casa de los Pelícanos 

One of these differences is that Art Nouveau—the Franco-Belgian counterpart to Catalan modernism—was also very influential in Cuba, to the point that both styles are often confused. In practice, Havana is the only Latin American city included in the Art Nouveau Network, and on many Cuban websites, the term Art Nouveau is used more than modernism. 

The next visit is an example of this Franco-Belgian influence. Like the Cueto Palace, the Casa de los Pelícanos has recently undergone major restoration and today houses a cultural space promoting Art Nouveau (10). On the other hand, there is the Vitrina de Valonia, which—as its name suggests—is dedicated to promoting Belgian culture. In contrast, there is no similar center focused on Catalan and/or modernist culture. At least, not today. Those that once existed have disappeared. We’ll talk about them next Friday. 

Let’s return now to the Casa de los Pelícanos. The original building was constructed in the late 19th century, but like many others, in the early 20th century its façade was adapted to the ornamentation criticized by Alejo Carpentier and now a source of nostalgia. Tempora mutantur! 

Fourth Stop: La Quinta de las Delicias 

As we mentioned at the beginning, few houses from the “Catalan era” feature an integrated design, both inside and out, like those designed in Catalonia by Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner, or Puig i Cadafalch. La Quinta de las Delicias is an exception, although its creator was Charles Le Brun, a Belgian architect based in New York, who gave it the air of a French Gothic castle. The story of the estate and its owner, Doña Rosalia Abreu, is fascinating, but due to space constraints, we’ll highlight just one small interior detail that speaks volumes about the movement of goods and influences at the time. 

We’re talking about hydraulic mosaic, one of the most iconic techniques of Modernisme and/or Art Nouveau. In Catalonia, its most famous manufacturer was the Escofet brand. Well, if we trace the path of Escofet’s hydraulic tile model number 1019, we’ll see that steamships at some point brought this model to Havana, as it appears in La Quinta de las Delicias. Two years later, Domènech i Montaner would also use it in the Casa Lleó Morera. This detail is one of the examples used by researcher Montserrat Villaverde to illustrate a couple of fascinating routes based on Catalan pavement around the world, confirming a fact that is often forgotten: Catalan Modernisme was not a sedentary art form, confined to Catalonia. On the contrary, it was a mobile style that spread to other places (11). 

Fifth Stop: Casa Fradera

Among the architects of the Catalan era, Mario Rotllant i Folcarà stands out. We already showed some of his advertisements at the beginning of the article. He was born and died in Barcelona, but between 1905 and 1924 he lived in Havana, where he became the leading builder. His most well-known work is the Casa de Joan Fradera, located at 107 Cárdenas Street, one of the areas with the highest concentration of “Catalan era” homes, along with Obispo and Neptuno Streets—two popular arteries of Old Havana, the area facing the first stretches of the Malecón. The presence of Mario Rotllant’s workshop on Cárdenas Street, the center of his activity, may have contributed to this concentration of Modernist works in just a few streets (see: catalogue of Modernist works in Havana). The following image shows a series of houses at the corner of Cárdenas and Apodaca Streets. All of them were designed by Rotllant. 

Outside of these streets, the presence of Modernisme in Havana and the rest of Cuba is limited to isolated examples scattered throughout the city. One of them is Masía L’Ampordà, also by Mario Rotllant in collaboration with Ignasi de la Vega Ramonteau. Built between 1918 and 1919, it is one of the last buildings of the Catalan era. Today it houses a school, but many of its original decorative details have been preserved. The most famous element of this house is the green trencadís benches with floral inlays. 

Sixth Stop: Camagüey 

After Havana, which has around a hundred Modernist works, the second Cuban city with the most heritage is Camagüey, located in the center of the island, but with only about ten examples (see: Modernist works in Camagüey). 

Of all of them, perhaps the most curious is the house on Finlay Avenue, built by the Catalan master builder Antonio Moya i Andreu. As we can see in the following photos, the upper part of its façade strongly resembles the famous Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona (12). However, as we’ve already mentioned, this doesn’t mean that Cuban Modernisme is merely a copy of Catalan architecture. On the contrary, the works built on the Caribbean island are characterized by their eclecticism—that is, a mix of styles. In fact, the Catalan footprint on the island is not always found in buildings with a Modernist appearance. We’ll talk more about this and other topics next Friday! We’ll be waiting for you at Havana Central Station… 

Notes 

(1) Martí, Carles (1918), Los catalanes en América (Cuba), Minerva, Barcelona 

(2) Segura Soriano, Isabel (1999), 7 passejades per l’Havana, La Campana, Barcelona, p. 87 

(3) Mestre Martí (2015), Patrimonio arquitectónico del siglo XX: el legado Art Nouveau de la Habana, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, p. 17  

(4) Ibíd., p. 7 

(5) Ibíd., p. 16 En aquesta referencia, mencionen critiques d’altres autors.  

(6) Redacció (30/11/2001), “Ornamentos por encargo”, Opus Habana, Vol. V. Nº 1, 2001, pp. 44-52 

“La utilización a gran escala del cemento ofreció una vía mucho más rápida y sencilla que los trabajos de cantería para producir los motivos ornamentales. Además, los talleres de fundición permitían elevar la productividad con una mano de obra menos especializada. Podía garantizarse con facilidad la similitud entre las diferentes piezas y una mayor agilidad en su elaboración. Mientras un maestro cantero tardaba aproximadamente tres días en conformar un capitel corintio por citar un ejemplo, en un taller de fundición se producían tres capiteles por molde cada día”.  

(7) Villaverde, Montserrat ( ), “Cloenda: dos itineraris modernistes”, web de la Enciclopèdia Catalana,  

(8) Callejo, Jordi (20/10/2013), “Herència del jardí modernista a Cuba. Els Jardins de La Tropical”, web Jardins Patrimoni 

(9) Rodríguez Marcano, Yamira (24/06/2016), “Los Jardines de La Tropical (II), web Habana Radio. 

(10) Redacció (23/09/2020), “Casa de los Pelicanos: futura sede cubana de la exposicion Naturaleza del Art Nouveau”, web Italia-Cuba  

(11) Villaverde, Montserrat, Op. Cit.,  

(12) Mestre Martí, Op. Cit., p. 9-12