Faded pastels and candy-coloured cars
Havana
Grand old buildings in sun-bleached pastels, and American cars of the 1950s repainted in bright gloss.
Why Havana is faded turquoise
Havana, the capital of Cuba, was one of the great ports of the Spanish empire. Old Havana has Baroque churches and arcaded squares, and beyond it stretch districts of ornate buildings from the early 20th century. Decades of salt air and scarce money for upkeep have left the paint faded and peeling, so walls show layers of turquoise, pink, yellow and green. Parts of the old city have been restored and repainted since it became a World Heritage Site in 1982. In the streets run American cars from the 1950s, kept going since the United States trade embargo of the early 1960s cut off new ones. Many now work as taxis, resprayed pink, red, lime or sky blue.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Havana" on Wikipedia. If you know Havana and we have it wrong, tell us.
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🇨🇺 Sugar-town pastelsTrinidadA small Cuban town of cobbled streets and low houses in yellow, blue and pink, built on sugar wealth.
🇮🇳 City of painted temple towersMaduraiThe towers of the Meenakshi temple carry thousands of painted figures; jasmine sellers add white below.
🇺🇿 City of blue domesSamarkandRibbed turquoise domes and tiled gateways in every shade of blue rise over an old Silk Road capital.
🇺🇿 Mud walls and a turquoise towerKhivaA walled desert town where a short, fat minaret wrapped in blue-green tile stands over clay-coloured lanes.
🇮🇷 Half the world, in turquoiseIsfahanSafavid mosques around a vast square are covered inside and out with turquoise and deep blue tiles.
🇪🇹 The painted walled cityHararBehind old stone walls, the alleys and house fronts of this Ethiopian city are painted in bright pastels.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Madurai In: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Samarkand Uz: Adam Harangozó, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Khiva Uz: Doron, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Isfahan Ir: Pedram forouzanfar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Harar Et: Unknown author, CC BY 2.0, source
- Trinidad Cu: Dieter Mueller, dino1948, CC BY-SA 3.0, source