Havana Cathedral (''Catedral de San Cristóbal'') is one of eleven Catholic cathedrals on the island. It is located in the Plaza de la Catedral on Calle Empedrado, between San Ignacio y Mercaderes,

Old Havana Old Havana ( es, link=no, La Habana Vieja) is the city-center (downtown) and one of the 15 municipalities (or boroughs) forming Havana, Cuba. It has the second highest population density in the city and contains the core of the original city of ...

. The thirty by forty-nine meters rectangular church serves as the seat of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Cristóbal de la Habana The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana ( la, Archidioecesis Avanensis) is one of three Catholic archdioceses in Cuba.
ref name="Archdiocese of Havana"> Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Cristóbal de la Habana, Archdiocese of Havana

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

’ remains were kept in the cathedral between 1796 and 1898 before they were taken to

Seville Cathedral The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See ( es, Catedral de Santa María de la Sede), better known as Seville Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It was registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along ...

. It was built between 1748 and 1777 and was consecrated in 1782.

History

The largest missionary group in Havana was the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

. After extensive petitioning and the purchase of a piece of land in the Plaza by

Diego Evelino Hurtado de Compostela Bishop Diego Evelino Hurtado Vélez (1638 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain - August 29, 1704 in Havana, Cuba) was the Bishop of Diocese of Santiago de Cuba (now the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba). He was known as Bishop Diego Evelino Hurtado de Co ...

, Bishop of

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

, a permit was granted. The cathedral is set in the former Plaza de La Ciénaga. In 1727 plans to build a church, convent and

collegium A (plural ), or college, was any association in ancient Rome that acted as a legal entity. Following the passage of the ''Lex Julia'' during the reign of Julius Caesar as Consul and Dictator of the Roman Republic (49–44 BC), and their rea ...

were approved and the project began to take form. The plaza is located on the site of a swamp that was drained and used as a naval dockyard before the cathedral was built. The Jesuits began construction of the cathedral in 1748 on the site of an earlier church and it was completed in 1777, well after King

Charles III of Spain it, Carlo Sebastiano di Borbone e Farnese , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Philip V of Spain , mother = Elisabeth Farnese , birth_date = 20 January 1716 , birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain , death_d ...

expelled the Jesuits from the island in 1767. The cathedral once held remains of

. In 1796, after the

Peace of Basel The Peace of Basel of 1795 consists of three peace treaties involving France during the French Revolution (represented by François de Barthélemy). *The first was with Prussia (represented by Karl August von Hardenberg) on 5 April; *The sec ...

was signed and Spain ceded most of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, the remains of Columbus were moved and laid to rest in the Havana Cathedral's ''Altar of the Gospel''. The gravestone read: ''Oh Remains and Image of Great Columbus, Be Preserved One Thousand Years in the Funerary Urn.'' The remains were returned to Spain in 1898 after the Cuban War of Independence. In the early 19th century, the baroque altars were replaced by neoclassical ones, urged by Bishop Espada, a fervent admirer of Neoclassicism and the original wood ceilings were plastered over.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Cristóbal de la Habana

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Haban

la, Archidioecesis Avanensis) is one of three Catholic

archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

s in

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 ...

. This

Latin Rite Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church ''sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...

Roman Rite The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while dist ...

diocese was erected on 10 September 1787 by

Pope Pius VI Pope Pius VI ( it, Pio VI; born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799. Pius VI condemned the French Revoluti ...

, from the territory of the then–

Diocese of Santiago de Cuba The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba ( la, Archidioecesis Sancti Iacobi in Cuba, links=no) (erected 1518 as the Diocese of Baracoa) is a Metropolitan Archdiocese, responsible for the dioceses of Guantánamo-Baracoa, Holguín and Sa ...

. When it was erected, the new diocese encompassed the secular provinces of Santa Clara,

Matanzas Matanzas (Cuban ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas (Spanish ''Bahia de Matanzas''), east ...

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.

, and

Pinar del Río Pinar del Río is the capital city of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. With a population of 139,336 (2004) in a municipality of 190,332, it is the List of cities in Cuba, 10th-largest city in Cuba. Inhabitants of the area are called ''Pinareños'' ...

in Cuba and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

in what is now the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. On 25 April 1793 the diocese lost territory for what would be the first of four territorial losses when the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas (Saint Louis of New Orleans) was erected. The diocese again lost territory on 20 February 1903 when the dioceses of Pinar del Río and

Cienfuegos Cienfuegos (), capital of Cienfuegos Province, is a city on the southern coast of Cuba. It is located about from Havana and has a population of 150,000. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centers, especial ...

were erected, and then again on 10 December 1912 upon the erection of the diocese of Matanzas. Eventually the diocese was elevated to the

Metropolitan See Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a t ...

of ''Sancti Christophori de Habana'', San Cristobal de la Habana on 6 January 1925.

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

accepted the resignation of Cardinal

Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino (18 October 1936 – 26 July 2019) was a Cuban prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Havana from 1981 to 2016. He was appointed to the College of Cardinals in 1994, the second Cuban to hold tha ...

as Archbishop of Havana on 26 April 2016. The archdiocese had one auxiliary bishop, Bishop

Juan de Dios Hernández-Ruiz Juan de Dios Hernández-Ruiz, S.J. (born November 14, 1948, in Holguín, Cuba) is a Cuban Roman Catholic bishop, currently serving as the Bishop of Pinar del Río since his appointment by Pope Francis on June 5, 2019. He previously served as t ...

, S.J., at the beginning of 2019, in which year he was appointed Bishop of Pinar del Rio. The archdioces

encompasses and has two

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...

dioceses, Matanzas and Pinar del Río. According to a 2004 estimate there were a total of 3.9 million people living within the confines of the diocese, 71.8% or 2.8 million of whom were Roman Catholic. There were 49 diocesan priests and 62 religious priests, totaling 111 priests serving the faithful of the diocese. With these figures, there were approximately 25,225 Catholics per priest. There were 23

permanent deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

s and 79 men-religious and 348 women-religious. In 2004, there were 102 established parishes.

Architecture

Fachada principal de la catedral de la Habana, en La Ilustración Católica

The cathedral's

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

front elevation has asymmetrical bell towers the details of the facade are similar to those of the

San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary is a seminary in Havana, Cuba. Building As a training center where prestigious Cuban intellectuals were educated before the foundation of the University of Havana, it was one of the most important buildings dur ...

which is part of the same ecclesiastical complex. One can see fossilized marine fauna and flora in the stone walls as the cathedral is, as many buildings in Havana are, constructed out of blocks of

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

. It has a central

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, two side aisles and eight side chapels. The central arches of the nave are buttressed by eight stone flying arches located above the side aisles on the exterior of the cathedral as can be seen in the section. The flying arches, the dome over the transept or the orange

roof tiles Roof tiles are designed mainly to keep out rain, and are traditionally made from locally available materials such as terracotta or slate. Modern materials such as concrete, metal and plastic are also used and some clay tiles have a waterproof ...

cannot be seen from the square. The width of the central nave is fifteen meters. The plan forms a Latin cross.

Artworks

The cathedral contains a number of sculptures, paintings and frescoes. There is a statute of

Apolinar Serrano Apolinar Serrano (July 23, 1833 - June 15, 1876) was a Spanish bishop of Havana. He was born in Villarramiel, Spain. Buried in Havana Cathedral Havana Cathedral (''Catedral de San Cristóbal'') is one of eleven Catholic cathedrals on the islan ...

(July 23, 1833 – June 15, 1876) who was a Spanish bishop of Havana and was buried in the cathedral. Copies of paintings in the side chapels by Rubens and Murillo on the altars. There is a sculpture of Saint Christopher, Patron Saint of Havana, which dates from 1632 and was made by

Martín de Andújar Cantos Martín de Andújar Cantos (born 1602 in the Province of Albacete) was a Spanish sculptor and architect. He spent much of his life in Tenerife and is considered one of the island's most noted sculptors.Gran Enciclopedia del Arte en Canerias, Cen ...

in Seville, Spain. Above the altar are three fading frescoes by Italian artist

Giuseppe Perovani Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph, from Latin Josephus, Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף. It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it. The feminine form of the name ...

, a neoclassical artist who was commissioned by Bishop Juan José Díaz de Espada y Fernánez de Landa of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Cristóbal de la Habana The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana ( la, Archidioecesis Avanensis) is one of three Catholic archdioceses in Cuba.Jean Baptiste Vermay Jean Baptiste Vermay (1786–1833) was a French-born Cuban painter, sculptor, caricaturist, educator, musician, and architect. He was the founding director of the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro. Biography Jean-Baptiste Vermay ...

, founder and first director of the Academy of Painting and Drawing of San Alejandro, the same creator of the interior works of the

El Templete El Templete is a monument to the initial mass of San Cristóbal de la Habana celebrated on November 16, 1519. Jean Baptiste Vermay painted the interior of the monument. See also *La Alameda de Paula, Havana The Alameda de Paula is a promena ...

, in the original enclave of the city. The cathedral stands within the area of

that

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

designated a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

in 1982.

Gallery

File:La Catedral, Habana, 1900-1920. - panoramio.jpg, The Havana Cathedral, ca. 1900-1920 File:Havana-23 (45836370061).jpg, View from the square File:2012-Catedral de San Cristobal anagoria 02.JPG File:Catedral de la Virgen María de la Concepción Inmaculada de La Habana (5979454067).jpg File:Catedral de La Habana, Habana Vieja, Cuba. Agosto de 2016 04.jpg File:Habana Cathedral 1.jpg File:Habana Cathedral 2.jpg File:Habana Cathedral 3.jpg File:Habana Cathedral 4.jpg

Notes

References

External links

Digital Photographic Archive of Historic HavanaPanoramic Virtual Tour in Cathedral Square"San Cristóbal Cathedral" picture gallery
{{wikidata, label, raw Religious buildings and structures in Havana Roman Catholic churches in Havana 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Cuba Roman Catholic cathedrals in Cuba Spanish Colonial architecture in Cuba Roman Catholic churches completed in 1777 Buildings and structures in Havana Tourist attractions in Havana