The Magic of Stairs
Photo Feature by Irina Pino
HAVANA TIMES – Stairs have many different meanings. Spiritually, it is said that ascending them leads to heaven and to seeing God. Likewise, they symbolize the pursuit of wisdom. On the other hand, descending stairs is like delving into the psyche, the unconscious. In Hinduism, stairs represent spiritual union, the search for ultimate reality, and liberation.
When the patriarch Jacob left Beersheba and arrived in Haran, he spent the night there. He took a stone from the place as a pillow and then dreamed of a stairway that rested on the earth and reached up to heaven. Angels were ascending and descending. When he saw God, He promised Jacob descendants and protection.
Scholars believe that stairs are more than 6,000 years old, predating Christ; their exact age cannot be determined. In early human history, tree trunks were used to climb difficult terrain. Stairs served as access to hiding places, as a means of survival.
Throughout the history of architecture, various designs have emerged—straight, mixed, and curved. They fall into subgenres: straight, with straight flights, with two straight flights, two enclosed flights without a stairwell, stairwells, three or four flights, curved stairs, elliptical, spiral, helical, and mixed types.
Materials such as stone, iron, steel, aluminum, wood veneer, glass, and concrete are used, as well as composite elements. There are even natural stairways created by nature itself.
If we pay close attention, we see them everywhere—apartment buildings, churches, monuments, plazas, museums, schools, hospitals, institutions, and even public transportation. There are portable ones used for lighting maintenance, painting, construction, and telecommunications. Electric stairways are found in shopping centers, malls, and department stores.
I’ve read about famous staircases, including the Pailón del Diablo in Ecuador; Chand Baori in India; the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps in San Francisco; the staircase of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, between the coasts of Bakio and Bermeo, featured in the series Game of Thrones. Other notable ones include The Vessel in New York; Bom Jesus do Monte (Braga) in Portugal; Potemkin Stairs in Odessa; and Plaza España in Rome. In Rome, notable staircases include Salita de Borgia, Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti, and Cordonata del Campidoglio.
In Havana, we have the University Staircase, presided over by the emblematic Alma Mater sculpture. With its 88 steps, it recreates the neoclassical structure of a Roman forum.
Here I mention just a few. I encourage you to look up information on all those staircases that hold historical data and interesting details.
I also can’t forget the song Stairway to Heaven by the band Led Zeppelin, and this phrase: “Is your staircase resting on the whisper of the wind?”
In cinema, staircases often carry dramatic weight, especially in scenes involving falls related to violence, crime, or accidents. For the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, they were crucial elements in his films Psycho and Vertigo.
As for me, I wrote From the Steps Down, a book of very personal texts where I explore themes such as love, life and death, cinema, literature, and music.
With these images, I leave you a sample of the staircases I’ve photographed on my walks through the city. I hope you enjoy them.
Wonderful write up. Very nice pictures. My first picture I had taken of me, back on the first day, of my first trip to Havana in 2016, from the United States was on the stairs of the University of Havana.