Wednesday, 13 July 2011 20:38
Havana´s Cathedral. Photo by L. Calvo.
This asymmetric, monumental Catholic church, with a plaza out front and palaces and buildings surrounding it, is without a doubt the most harmonious (and most photographed) architectural complex in the Cuban capital.
It´s a place you should´t miss, especially if you want to go back centuries in a dream-like state.
Dedicated to Havana´s Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception, they began constructing the cathedral in 1748, finishing in 1832. From an architectural standpoint, its facade is baroque, but the interiors are clearly neoclassical style. It has a steeple on each side, three naves and eight adjacent chapels. In addition to its quite unique characteristics for a building of this type, the cathedral´s dome is lower than that of its steeples.
The black and white marble tiled floor gives the church a singular sobriety, while its enormous exterior rocks, in the form of a coral reef, exhibit striking inlaid fossils of oceanic fauna and flora. The main altar is richly decorated with sculptures and fine silver work, plus has three original frescoes from Italian artist Perovani. In the naves there are valuable paintings by French, Jean-Baptiste Vermay, along with precious pieces, shrines and tombs of famous people related to the city and the nation.
In what is now known as Plaza de la Catedral, the church faces stately buildings that were for colonial Havana nobility —especially those who were titled to the Castile´s Crown— among which are the Marqués de Arcos Palace, the Marqués de Aguas Claras mansion, the Lombillo Palace and the Condes de Casa Bayona and Condes de Peñalver residents, which today are basically all museums.
In the seventeenth century this area was known as the Ciénaga (Swamp) plaza, for being an unsanitary drain, but was transformed between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries into Havana´s most distinguished and aristocratic area, dazzling with such superb celebrations and receptions, that they rivaled in prominence with the Plaza de Armas.
Detalles:
158 Empedrado Street, between Mercaderes y San Ignacio
Habana Vieja area.
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