World Heritage Sites on Humboldts Spanish American expedition

Work in progress

With his five-year Spanish American expedition from 1799 to 1804, the German polymath Alexander von Humboldt laid the foundation for his later world fame. This page shows impressions and today's World Heritage Sites along his route, all together about 60 World Heritage Sites, taken during the ZEIT Humboldt Expedition 2020 from December 26, 2019 to February 22, 2020.

With Humboldt in Cuba • Mit Humboldt in Kuba

Humboldt arrived in Cuba on December 19, 1800, where he remained until March 29, 1801. After an extended stay in Havana, he traveled to the south part of the island where he visited several haciendas before traveling on by ship from Trinidad to Cartegena in Columbia. Humboldt and his fellow traveling companion, Bonpland, visited Cuba a second time in 1804, from March 19 till April 29, before visiting the USA on their return voyage to Europe.
Cuba's inclusions on the list List of World Heritage Site include nine World Heritage Sites. We visited and made fotos from Old Havana and its Fortifications, Trinidad and the Valle de los Ingenios with historic Cane sugar mills, Historic Centre of Camagüey, the Historic Centre of Cienfuegos Nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites make up the Cultural Heritage in Cuba (2017), seven places of cultural importance and two of environmental heritage. Here are posted photos of the World Heritage Sites we visited in Cuba: La HabanaVieja/Old Havana, the historical center of the city Trinidad, including the historical cane sugar factory in Valle de los Ingenios, which is located 12 km northeast of Trinidad, the Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca, and the historical city center of Cienfuegos. The most important information as well as a survey of the World Cultural Heritage sites in Cuba may be found in the Wikipedia article World Cultural Heritage in Cuba.

La Habana Vieja • Alt-Havanna

Old Havana has maintained the pattern of the early urban setting with its five large plazas, each with its own architectural character: Plaza de Armas, Plaza Vieja, Plaza de San Francisco, Plaza del Cristo and Plaza de la Catedral. Around these plazas are many outstanding buildings, including the Iglesia Catedral de La Habana, Antiguo Convento de San Francisco de Asís, Palacio del Segundo Cabo and Palacio de los Capitanes Generales. Its old centre retains an interesting mix of Baroque and neoclassical monuments, and a homogeneous ensemble of private houses with arcades, balconies, wrought-iron gates and internal courtyards.

A visit to the Casa Museo Humboldt on December 27, 2019 was the first stop of our excursion. „Retracing the path of Humboldt in America“, the permanent exhibit in the museum, curated by David Blankenstein and Peter Korneffel , had been opened a few days prior to our visit. After a presentation of the places which Humboldt visited in Cuba, we viewed the exhibit and the adjacent Humboldt Park. We then wandered through the Old City of Havana following the footprints of Humboldt, visited his residence in the Palacio O’Reilly on the famous Plaza Vieja, as well as the city palaces of the Capitane Generales and the Segundo Cabo on the Plaza de Armas, where Humboldt had been received as guest. Today, these places are generally part of the World Cultural Heritage. That applies also to the historical patios, the cathedral of Havana and the Plaza San Francisco, which we also visited. We spoke with scientists and historians in the Academy of Sciences. A final highlight was the drive along the famous Malecon to the Castillo de los Tres Reyes dei Morro in american oldtimers from the 1950s.