| One of the most interesting walks through Old | | | | temple, aforetime, there were preserved more than |
| Havana is precisely that of its St. Francis of Assisi | | | | 500 volumes containing the most important |
| Square, and the Basilica of the same name located in | | | | information of the epoch. |
| that same place, very close to the harbour. | | | | The place had different uses, from the religious one |
| The impressive silence conferred to the square by | | | | to that of an official mail facility, storehouse, state |
| the mute stones, many of them placed there during | | | | offices, until it finally regained its particular charm, on |
| the 16th century, now work as a an excellent | | | | October 4th, 1993, as it became a music hall of great |
| concert hall that ever more often take place there. | | | | prestige. |
| Handel, Bach, Haydn and other celebrities are | | | | Nowadays, the Basilica is open to all visitors, especially |
| distinguished guests of those walls, or Cuban | | | | those most sensitive ones. It is a monument to |
| musicians of great renown like Ernesto Lecuona, | | | | beauty, silence and retreat. |
| Rodrigo Pratts and Gonzalo Roig, revived to the beat | | | | Its hall culminates with a design that recreates the |
| of inescapable sheet music. Every corner of the | | | | vaulted space it must have been during the times it |
| Basilica gleams through arias and overtures, raised by | | | | had its dome -destroyed by the hurricane. |
| adagios and allegros. | | | | A primitive baroque style gives testimony of the |
| The surrounding square seems to have been built | | | | authenticity of the work -Corinthian and Doric |
| between 1574 and 1591. Its today's cobblestones, | | | | imitations distribute the touch of distinction of |
| the fountain around which there can be found small | | | | constructors who, at that time, placed their hopes on |
| cafes, were centre of the human settlement of that | | | | that work and some of them have totally |
| time -a Havana definitely situated in November of | | | | disappeared in time, leaving their soul on each stone. |
| 1519 to the margins of the so-called Puerto Cadenas, | | | | A Jesus Christ on the cross hangs above the heads |
| today's Havana's port. | | | | of the attendants, the sculptural work -it was a |
| The Franciscans, protagonists of many evangelical | | | | present from count O´Reilly to the temple in |
| adventures in the Americas, gave themselves the | | | | previous times. There, we can find oil paintings from |
| task of building their temple there, some | | | | Vicente Escobar (1757-1834) and religious objects |
| documentary evidence speak about being 1719 the | | | | preserved for curious people to see them and are |
| year when the construction of the convent and the | | | | scattered all around the majestic concert hall. |
| church began, close to the interior beaches of the | | | | On that courtyard all the intermediates go by, when |
| bay. | | | | visitors take small walks and look high above to take |
| In 1734 they would finish this building. In 1846 a | | | | notice of the contrasts of colors induced by the sun |
| hurricane destroyed the upper part of the chapel; | | | | in that part of the world, with its particular charm in |
| however, a 42-meter tower is still preserved -at that | | | | the City of Havana -day-dreaming magic. |
| time one of the highest points of the city. In the | | | | |