El Capitolio, or the National Capitol Building (''Capitolio Nacional de La Habana''), is a public edifice in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, the capital of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. The building was commissioned by Cuban president

Gerardo Machado Gerardo Machado y Morales (28 September 1869 – 29 March 1939) was a general of the Cuban War of Independence and President of Cuba from 1925 to 1933. Machado entered the presidency with widespread popularity and support from the major polit ...

and built from 1926 to 1929 under the direction of

Eugenio Rayneri Piedra Eugenio Rayneri Piedra was the architect of numerous buildings in Havana, son of Eugenio Rayneri Sorrentino a remarkable architect, author of the entrance of the Colón Cemetery, the Palace of the Marquise of Villalba, and the Mercado de Tacón. ...

. It is located on the

Paseo del Prado The Paseo del Prado is one of the main boulevards in Madrid, Spain. It runs north–south between the Plaza de Cibeles and the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V (also known as Plaza de Atocha), with the Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo (the locati ...

, Dragones, Industria, and San José streets in the exact center of Havana.

History

Hava,_Cuba_1899-1903-estacion-de-villanueva-luego-el-capitolio-calle-dragones-y-prado

Partial_map_of_Havana_showing_the_Villanueva_railway_station_before_the_Capitol_was_built

The Havana Capitol building was built on land that was a railroad terminal and used to belong to the Villanueva Railway. The project began in April 1926, during the

administration. Construction was overseen by the U.S. firm of

Purdy and Henderson Purdy and Henderson was a New York City-based engineering firm founded by Corydon Tyler Purdy and Lightner Henderson. They were active in the United States and Cuba between 1890 and 1944. Purdy and Henderson was founded in Chicago, and transferr ...

. Prior to the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the Congress was housed in the building, the Congress was abolished and disbanded following the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the building fell into disrepair. "El Capitolio" has a size of 681 by 300 ft. Although its design is often compared to the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

, it is not a replica. "It is similar to that in Washington D.C, but a meter higher, a meter wider, and a meter longer, as well as much richer in detail. To finish its construction they needed more than 5000 workers, 3 years, 3 months and 20 days; as well as approximately 17 million American dollars". Completed in 1929, it was the tallest building in Havana until the 1950s. It houses the world's third largest indoor statue. On August 30, 2019, the historian of the city

Eusebio Leal Eusebio Leal Spengler (11 September 194231 July 2020) was a Cuban historian. He served as the municipal historian of Havana, as well as the director of the restoration project of Old Havana. Under his oversight, the historic centre of the capit ...

proclaimed the end of the renovation with the unveiling of the dome.

Building

The cupola, which is stone-clad around a steel frame that was constructed in the United States, is set planimetrically forward on the building to allow for the

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

that contains ''La Republica'', the "Statue of the Republic". At almost high, the dome was the highest point in the city of Havana until 1956 when the

FOCSA Building The FOCSA Building is a residential and commercial block in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana, Cuba. At , it is the tallest building in Cuba. It was named after the contracting company ''Fomento de Obras y Construcciones, Sociedad Anónima'', and ...

was built reaching a height of 121 meters (397 ft). The Capitolio had the third-highest dome in the world at the time of its construction. According to

, the inspiration for the

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

came from the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

by way of

Bramante Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style ...

's Tempietto in San Pietro in Montoriobr>
ref> The gardens, based on the designs of European gardens consisting of areas of lawn bordered by paths and highlighted by Roystonea, Royal Palm trees, were designed by French

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manageme ...

Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier (9 January 1861 in Aix-les-Bains – 26 October 1930 in Paris) was a French landscape architect who trained with Adolphe Alphand and became conservator of the promenades of Paris. Works Forestier developed an arb ...

who also designed the

. The 56 steps leading to the main entrance, ''La Escalinata,'' is flanked by statues by the Italian artist

Angelo Zanelli Angelo Zanelli (1879–1942) was an Italian sculptor. He was born at San Felice del Benaco, near Brescia. In 1904 he moved to Rome, where he met Felice Carena. He won the contract for the realization of sculptures in the large Monument to V ...

. To the left is ''Work'' (''El Trabajo'') and to the right ''The Tutelary Virtue'' (''La Virtud Tutelar''). The steps lead up to the central

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

, which is wide and more than tall. There are 12

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

columns in the

ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

arranged in two rows and each over tall. Beyond the portico, three large bronze doors with

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

s by Zanelli allow access to the main hall. Capitolio de La Habana (Cuba) 02

The inside of the main hall under the cupola is the ''Statue of the Republic'' (''La Estatua de la República''). The statue, also by Zanelli, was cast in bronze in Rome in three pieces and assembled inside the building after its arrival in Cuba. It is covered with 22 carat (92%)

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

and weighs 49 tons. At tall, it was the second highest statue under cover in the world at the time, with only the

Great Buddha of Nara Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

being taller. The statue stands on a plinth high bringing the total height to . A Creole Cuban, Lily Valty served as the model for the body for Zanelli, and the inspiration for the statue came from

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Embedded in the floor in the center of the main hall is a replica 25 carat (5 g) diamond, which marks

Kilometre Zero In many countries, kilometre zero (also written ''km 0'') or similar terms in other languages (also known as zero mile marker, zero milepost, control stations or control points) denote a particular location (usually in the nation's capital cit ...

for Cuba. The original diamond, said to have belonged to

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

and have been sold to the Cuban state by a Turkish merchant, was stolen on 25 March 1946 and mysteriously returned to the President,

Ramón Grau San Martín Ramón or Ramon may refer to: People Given name * Ramon (footballer, born 1998), Brazilian footballer * Ramón (footballer, born 1990), Brazilian footballer *Ramón (singer), Spanish singer who represented Spain in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest ...

, on 2 June 1946. To either side of the main hall is the ''Salón de Pasos Perdidos'' (''Hall of Lost Steps''), named for its acoustic properties. These halls, with inlaid marble floors and gilded lamps, lead to the two semicircular chambers that formerly housed the Parliament and Chamber of Deputies. The Parliament chamber to the right of the building is backed on to by the President's office which has a door opening directly onto the

dais A dais or daïs ( or , American English also but sometimes considered nonstandard)dais
in the Random House Dictionary< ...

. A range of different lamps is seen throughout the building. These were all designed specifically for the building by Cuban designers and the majority of them were manufactured in France. In the center of the building are two patios which provide light and ventilation for the offices on the first (ground), third and fourth floors. The north patio features another statue ''The Rebellious Angel'' (''El Ángel Rebelde'') which was donated to the building after the inauguration. There is a small fifth floor and a sixth-floor which gives access only to part of the cupola.

Central portico

A wide granite staircase of 56 steps, 36 meters wide and 16 meters high, leads to the portico of the building. There are two rows of 6 columns of the Ionic order. The pillars stand out with a diameter of 1.55 meters and a height of 14.10 meters. Reasons for the hall, located in all the doors and the lateral panels, are the Boticcino marble squares sculpted by

. On both sides of the end of the staircase are two bronze sculptural groups with granite pedestal by the Italian

, one male, and the other female, have a height of 6.70 meters and represent the first progress of human activity and the second the tutelary virtue of the people.

Statue of the Republic

Located in the apse, the Statue of the Republic is the figure of a young woman standing, dressed in a tunic, with a helmet, shield and lance; it weighs 30 tons, is 14.60 meters high, and rests on a marble pedestal of 2.50 meters. It was sculpted by

, author of the

Altare della Patria The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument ( it, Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II), also known as Vittoriano or Altare della Patria ("Altar of the Fatherland"), is a large national monument built between 1885 and 1935 to honour Victor E ...

, part of the monument to

King Victor Emmanuel II en, Victor Emmanuel Maria Albert Eugene Ferdinand Thomas , house = Savoy , father = Charles Albert of Sardinia , mother = Maria Theresa of Austria , religion = Roman Catholicism , image_size = 252px , succession1 ...

, in Rome. It is the third largest indoor statue in the world, surpassed only by the Buddha of Nara, Japan and the Abraham Lincoln statue in the

Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial is a U.S. national memorial built to honor the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument, and is in the ...

in Washington. D.C.

Gallery

File:Construccion Capitolio. Habana. 4 mayo 1929. - panoramio.jpg, ''El Capitolio'' under construction in May 1929 File:Havana Capitol Building-2.jpg, Aerial view File:El Capitolio, Havana, Cuba LCCN2010638891.tif, ''La Cámara'' File:Capitol library.jpg, The library File:09423 - Havanna Capitol E facade.jpg, Eastern facade by night

References

General

* * * *

Cited

External links

Construcción del Capitolio Nacional de La Habana 1929Cuba. Secretaría de Obras Públicas. Proyecto para la construcción de las Obras del Palacio del Congreso. Conjunto de Bocetos
{{Authority control Government buildings completed in 1929 Buildings and structures in Havana Tourist attractions in Havana Kilometre-zero markers Neoclassical architecture in Cuba Former seats of national legislatures Cuba articles needing attention Government buildings with domes