private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...
religious school
A religious school is a school that either has a religious component in its operations or its curriculum, or exists primarily for the purpose of teaching aspects of a particular religion.
For children
A 2002 study in the United States found highe ...
in
Marianao
Marianao is one of the 15 municipalities or boroughs (''municipios'' in Spanish) in the city of Havana, Cuba. It lies 6 miles southwest of the original city of Havana, with which it is connected by the Marianao railway. In 2022 the municipality had ...
,
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Tropicana nightclub. It was designed in 1925 by the
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
, Luis Morales y Pedroso of the firm Morales y Compañía Arquitectos.
History
Her Majesty Isabella II, Queen of Spain, issued a royal charter in the year 1854 founding the Colegio de Belén (Belen School) in Havana, Cuba. Belen began its educational work in the building formerly occupied by the convent and convalescent hospital of Our Lady of Belén in Havana Vieja. A meteorological observatory was established in 1857. A facility was built in 1896.
The building was constructed on sixty acres of land that had been donated and was to be used as the main building of the Colegio de Belén. The original building, a convent in Havana Vieja had been opened in 1854 within the premises of the formerly occupied convent and convalescent hospital of Our Lady of Belen. Those premises had become unsuitable and badly located due to the change of atmosphere in the neighborhood and the growth of the city. The project was designed by the Cuban architectural firm of Morales & Cia ( architect Leonardo Morales y Pedroso and Engineer Luis Morales y Pedroso) in 1925, with an unlimited budget for designing a religious school, the Colegio de Belén, Havana.
From 1925 to 1961, and located in the Marianao municipality, on an area of approximately 190,000 m2, emerged in the twenties of the last century, the new building with plans approved in Rome by Wlodimiro Ledochowsky, General of the Society of Jesus, in June 1921.
In mid-1923 the construction of this property was started, carried out by the company of architects and engineers
Morales y Compañía Arquitectos
Morales is a Spanish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Alfredo Morales (born 1990), American footballer
* Alvaro Morales (disambiguation), several people
* Amado Morales (born 1947), Puerto Rican javelin thrower
* Bartolomé M ...
, being built nine radiating pavilions, a central chapel of three floors, an entrance pavilion that had a fourth level where it was located the observatory. Its inaugural activities were carried out on December 19, 20 and 21, 1925, beginning its first course in January 1926.
The result was a monumental pan-optical edifice with an extensive neoclassical façade perpendicular to the large chapel and four large courtyards, recalling the building housing the convent in Havana Vieja, with three stories of porticoed galleries to link nine radial pavilions, the appearance is of instrumentality which is supported both in the design resources and the unusual dimensions of the spaces. The structure is built from the concrete-covered steel structure, the flooring, covered with tiles, and the roof are monolithic reinforced concrete slabs.
Chapel
The chapel was centrally located in plan, it had a wide central nave of triple height with a mural by Hipolito Hidalgo de Caviedes (1901–1994). It had two side aisles. El Colegio de Belen was known as "The Palace of Education."
1961
In 1961 the government of
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
(himself a graduate of Belen) confiscated all private and religious schools in Cuba. Castro expelled the Jesuits and declared the government of Cuba an atheist government. Castro's government nationalized businesses and banks, confiscating more than $1 billion in American-owned property. Thousands of those dubbed “enemies of the revolution” were executed or imprisoned, and the school curriculum was reshaped by communist doctrine. Free speech was not an option, and the Cuban socialist press was an extension of the government.
Rectors in the first Belen school
Calle Compostela, between Luz y Acosta (Havana, 1854–1925).
*1. Bartolomé Munar (1854–1857)
*2. Manuel Solís Pajares (Interino 1857–1858)
*3. José María Lluch (1858–1862)
*4. Buenaventura Feliú (1862–1868)
*5. Andrés García Rivas (1868–1874)
*6. Angel Rosendo Gallo (1874–1881)
*7. Tomás Ipiña (1881–1885)
*8. Isidoro Zameza (1885–1889)
*9. Benigno Iriarte (1889–1893)
*10. José María Palacio (1893–1899)
*11. Vicente Leza (1899–1908)
*12. Silverio Eraña (1908–1909)
*13. Fernando Ansoleaga(1909–1915)
*14. Antonino Oráa (1915–1918)
*15. Pedro Abad 1918-1922
*16. Claudio García Herrero (1922–1924)
*17. Camilo García (1924–1925)
Rectors in the new premises of Marianao
*18. Antonio Galán (1925–1930)
*19. Enrique Carvajal (1930–1931)
*20. Ignacio Francia (1931–1938)
*21. Ramón Calvo Hernández-Agero (1938–1940)
*22. Daniel Baldor de la Vega (1940–1947)
*23. Ceferino Ruiz Rodríguez (1947–1953)
*24. Miguel Angel Larrucea de la Mora (1953–1956)
*25. Eduardo Martínez Márquez (1956–1959)
*26. Daniel Baldor de la Vega(1959)
*27. Ramón Calvo Hernández(1959–1961)
Academics
Politicians, Cuba
Scientists
Gallery
Images from the 1940s and 50s of the Colegio de Belen:
Image:Colegio de Belen Floor plan, Havana, Cuba.jpg, Colegio de Belen_Floor plan by Leonardo Morales y Pedroso, ca 1925.
Image:Colegio_de_Belen,_courtyard,_Marianao,_Havana,_Cuba.jpg, Courtyad, detail.
Image:Belen School hallways -1950's- Havana.jpg, Hallways
Image:Belen School Havana-Audiotorium.jpg, Auditorium
Image:Fidelcastro colegio de belen 1943. Havana Cuba.jpg, Fidel Castro, 2nd from left. ca. 1943.
Image:Belen School cafeteria- Havana.jpg, Lunch room
Image:Belen School indoor pool-Havana.jpg, Swimming pool.
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School ( Spanish: ''Colegio Preparatorio Jesuita Belén'') is a private, Catholic, all-male, preparatory school run by the Antilles Province of the Society of Jesus in Tamiami, Page 1anPage 2/ref> unincorporated Mi ...
*
List of Belen Jesuit Preparatory School people
The following is a list of notable past pupils and faculty of the Belen Jesuit Preparatory School.
Academics
Entertainers and athletes
Entrepreneurs
Journalists
Politicians in Cuba
Politicians i ...
*
List of Jesuit sites
This list includes past and present buildings, facilities and institutions associated with the Society of Jesus. In each country, sites are listed in chronological order of start of Jesuit association.
Nearly all these sites have be ...
List of Belen Jesuit Preparatory School people
The following is a list of notable past pupils and faculty of the Belen Jesuit Preparatory School.
Academics
Entertainers and athletes
Entrepreneurs
Journalists
Politicians in Cuba
Politicians i ...
Tropicana Club
El Tropicana Night Club in Havana, Cuba located in a lush, estate tropical garden opened on December 30, 1939 at the Villa Mina in Marianao. It is located next door to the old Colegio de Belén, Havana, presently, the Instituto Técnico Milit ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
* ''La Habana, Guia de Arquitectura'', Maria Elena Zequeira & Eduardo Luis Rodriguez Fernandez, editors (Sevilla, Spain: A.G. Novograf, S.A., 1998)