Hotel Nacional responds with a photo of the project to criticism of the demolition of a historic swimming pool

The Hotel Nacional de Cuba has responded with photos of a new construction project to criticism of the demolition of the facility’s historic complex.

The day before the hotel’s historic swimming pool was demolished this week as part of an investment being made in the hotel, which was declared a national monument in May 1998.

This fact upset the technical coordinator, Abelardo Mena, and shared a photo on Facebook of the state the pond was left in after the demolition.

On Friday, the management of the tourist center published pictures of a new plan on its personal Facebook page, dedicated to “lovers of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba”, and said that it was “from the project that was designed for our swimming pool!!!”.

Likewise, he defended the new design as “a gift of image and comfort to a hotel that deserves it.”

While some praised the new project, et al They questioned the need to create a new assembly in times of crisis.

“If there really was a swimming pool, it would be appropriate to explain why it was demolished to build another swimming pool in the same place. If not, it is difficult to understand such a waste of resources in times of crisis. Thank you,” a netizen commented.

On Thursday, Mina reported that in 1989 the Cuban authorities decided to keep the pool as a historical relic, because the characters that They stayed at the hotelHence the confusion of the decision to destroy it completely.

“It didn’t take any such action,” he said.

Luis Miguel Diaz Sanchez, director of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, announced at the end of last year to the official agency Latin presswhich would assume an investment process, which would include the aforementioned complex.

“The capital investment for the historic complex and the complete remodeling of the buffet restaurant is being prepared, to begin in January 2023 and to be completed by May,” the manager said at the time, without giving further details of the operation.

Opened in 1930, Hotel Nacional de Cuba is an eclectic, Spanish-style building rising on Taganana Hill, in front of Havana’s Malecon.

Designed by New York architecture studio McKim, Mead and White, with funding from the National City Bank of New York, features stunning views of the harbor and part of the city.

In its 93 years, it has hosted important guests such as Winston Churchill, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Jimmy Carter, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Keaton, George Negrete, Agustín Lara, Rocky Marciano, Tyrone Power, and Romulo Gallegos , Errol Flynn, John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, Ernest Hemingway, Yuri Gagarin, Alexander Fleming, and part of the entourage that accompanied former US President Barack Obama, among others.