Beautiful Cuban Mosaics

  

Cuba is known for it's rum, cocktails, cigars, salsa, beautiful cities and beaches... but did you know that Cuba -in particular Havana- has the most amazing mosaics? While walking around town, I came across these stunning mosaic tiles and couldn't keep my eyes of them! Some are very old, dating back to colonial times (when the Spanish occupied Cuba), some new, but all just as beautiful. How about the ship depicted in the second photo? This tile in Iznik style, shows a Turkish galeon from the XVI - XVIII centuries (period of the Ottoman Empire) and was a gift from the Republic of Turkey to the city of Havana. Anyway, picking a favourite is impossible!

If you want to learn more about the history, reproduction and recovery of Cuban mosaic tiles, I can highly recommend the following article:
http://www.cubaabsolutely.com/Life&Style/article_design.php?id=Emmanuel's-passion-for-mosaics-at-the-Artes-Proceres-factory

To see more of Havana, please read one of my previous articles:
http://tarasdolcevita.blogspot.nl/2012/11/havana-summer-12.html