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Cuban Mortar Tiles
Chapter 4: Across Cuba
Mosaicos hidraulicos proliferate in cities and towns from west to east across the
island. Initially these came from Havana and Barcelona, but within ten years of
the founding of factories in Havana, provincial cities started to follow. Factories
did not require a big initial investment and tile-making was a relatively easily
learned skill. The diffi culty of transporting the heavy, and fragile-edged, product
favoured wide decentralisation of the industry. 1 From the 1910s to the 1940s
large factories opened in major cities (as listed in Appendix A) as well as
countless smaller producers operating one or two presses from a small workshop.
The following towns serve as examples of towns of varying sizes, near and far
from Havana, with differing histories and predominating periods of construction.
Common themes nevertheless emerge:-
• Identical tile designs can be found all over Cuba, from Havana to
Santiago de Cuba
• Were whole tile loads transported? Or instead were the lightweight
moulds (and perhaps also presses) transported instead?
• Similar, but different, designs seem to have been copied (shared or
even stolen?)
• Provenance of tiles is usually unknown.
• Some regional characteristics seem to exist.
• Rough rustic tiles are common in provincial cities, but so are fi nely-
made tiles with sophisticated patterns which use a economic minimum
colour palette on a grey cement background.
1. Jaume Rosell p7
2. Although staff members and house-owners had seen a contemporary advertisement and catalogue
for a mosaics factory and were convinced a major factory existed in Trinidad.
Trinidad
Chapter 4: Across Cuba
The town was selected for this study as its urban fabric is almost exclusively
colonial. While there are few examples of the later “Architecture of the Mould”
of which so much of Havana is constructed there is nevertheless a plethora of
mosaicos hidraulicos, a fl oor typical of this period.
Trinidad as an agricultural centre did not expand in the early 20th century in
the same way as Havana and some other port cities in Cuba. Owners of grand
houses spent their dwindling fortunes on beautifying their existing homes rather
than building new. Whilst whole buildings from the Art Nouveau, Eclectic and Art
Deco periods are a rarity in Trinidad, there is no shortage of moulded architectural
elements. Existing colonial houses were remodelled, in some cases extensively,
using pressed zinc ceilings, ceramic relief dados, cast plaster cornices,
roses and capitals. Elaborate mortar tile fl oors were laid as part of this extensive
remodelling. Decorative mortar tile fl oors replaced original stone fl oors to upgrade
even the more modest houses. Mosaicos hidraulicos abound in Trinidad.
Eclecticism, the greatest period for mosaic tiles, was in Trinidad expressed
primarily through revestimiento.
Some new Art Nouveau buildings were constructed, but in Trinidad these are
isolated examples. The Art Nouveau style is found more in details such as new
mamparas in old colonial houses. The modest Art Nouveau house at Lino Perez
#305 nevertheless an example of new building and one which shows an unusual
consistency between the style of its fl oor and the rest of its detailing.
Santa Clara, Remedios and Sagua la Grande - the ‘Las Villas’ connection
The larger Trinidad houses have very high quality tiles particularly in the sala
and saleta, and in some cases spectacular elaborate patterns have been laid
throughout the whole building from front to back (fgs 35 and 36 shows fl oor
tiles in Camilo Cienfuegos #272). La Ofi cina del Conservador in Trinidad has
no records of a mosaico hidraulico factory in Trinidad in the early C20. 2 These
tiles may have been manufactured by one of the large Havana producers, and
indeed there are many patterns which can be seen in Trinidad and Havana.
But there were a number of tile sources much nearer to hand in the group of
towns which formed the earlier province of Las Villas. The group, consisting of
Trinidad, Cienfuegos, Santa Clara, Sagua la Grande and Remedios, had close
business and manufacturing connections due to their geographical proximity.
The last three had particularly close links as all towns shared the Sagua river.