About to turn 100 years old architectural beauty of Matanzas (+audio and photos).

It was designed as a great viewpoint with an incredible view of the city and its bay, and it still is.

It identifies the city of Matanzas almost as much as its bridges. After its inauguration, on May 26th, 1929, it was called Central Park, later it was known as Machado and, perhaps as a contrast of two totally different historical figures, the people began to call it Julio Antonio Mella.

Apparently its destiny was the contrast of names, because after Batista’s coup d’état it was given the name Campomarzo to try to eternalize that disastrous date and, after the triumph of the Revolution, it became René Fraga Moreno Park.

It was designed as a great viewpoint with an incredible view of the city and its bay and it still is, as well as a place to take the children to waste a little of their inexhaustible energy, run some tracks, practice from tai chi, basketball, soccer or baseball, to a trumpet solo, or simply stroll or fall in love.

It was the site of the sadly disappeared Tiempo A track, that live transmission of the radio program that provided so many young people and teenagers with pleasant moments of healthy entertainment and also a place of initiation of outstanding sportsmen.

Its beauty, which has not faded even though it is about to turn 100 years old, makes it one of the favorite places for quinceañeras to immortalize their golden years in photos.

Many have done for it and almost as many against it. If it pleases you to see only the beauty of the city and for this facility to remain in your memory as what it was, leave this work to the next point and aside.

If you are interested in learning more about the current reality of this enviable green lung of the city, listen to the following interview with architect Ramón Recondo, a Yumurino born very close to this park and now national president of the Architecture Society of the Union of Architects and Construction Engineers of Cuba.

Written by Sergio López.