Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Havana, Huge Pleasure of All Senses

One of the most interesting walks through Oldtemple, aforetime, there were preserved more than
Havana is precisely that of its St. Francis of Assisi500 volumes containing the most important
Square, and the Basilica of the same name located ininformation 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 byto that of an official mail facility, storehouse, state
the mute stones, many of them placed there duringoffices, until it finally regained its particular charm, on
the 16th century, now work as a an excellentOctober 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 areNowadays, the Basilica is open to all visitors, especially
distinguished guests of those walls, or Cubanthose 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 beatIts hall culminates with a design that recreates the
of inescapable sheet music. Every corner of thevaulted space it must have been during the times it
Basilica gleams through arias and overtures, raised byhad its dome -destroyed by the hurricane.
adagios and allegros.A primitive baroque style gives testimony of the
The surrounding square seems to have been builtauthenticity 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 smallconstructors who, at that time, placed their hopes on
cafes, were centre of the human settlement of thatthat work and some of them have totally
time -a Havana definitely situated in November ofdisappeared 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 evangelicalpresent from count O´Reilly to the temple in
adventures in the Americas, gave themselves theprevious times. There, we can find oil paintings from
task of building their temple there, someVicente Escobar (1757-1834) and religious objects
documentary evidence speak about being 1719 thepreserved for curious people to see them and are
year when the construction of the convent and thescattered all around the majestic concert hall.
church began, close to the interior beaches of theOn 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 anotice 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 thatthe City of Havana -day-dreaming magic.
time one of the highest points of the city. In the