Havana Cathedral

Havana’s Cathedral can really take you by surprise. It’s set in a relatively small plaza in Old Havana, the smallest of Habana Vieja’s main squares, and as you enter the plaza on the street the cathedral faces, you are suddenly face to shoulder with it. Only when you look up does its size become apparent.

Each step backward from the faÇade reveals more of its mass and detail, and also its setting: the other three sides of the square are occupied by the former homes of noble families. Like the Cathedral, they were all built in Baroque style in the middle of the 18th century.

The Cathedral itself is considered the finest Baroque building in Cuba. Designed by an Italian architect, Francesco Borromini, it’s built of coral blocks quarried from the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico (look closely, and you can see tiny marine fossils embedded in the faÇade. A visiting Spanish novelist once described the building as “music set in stone.”

Officially the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception, it has an interesting history. When it was first proposed, the city officials refused permits. Eventually they were overruled through the influence of the Bishop of Santiago, and the former Plaza of the Swamp became the Plaza of the Cathedral. Some of the opposition may have to do with its being a Jesuit project; half-way through the project the order was expelled from Cuba.

Because it was built on a former swamp (which had also been used as a navy boatyard), water was and is a problem. The asymmetrical bell towers, unusual for a Baroque building, were designed to allow water that accumulates when it rains to drain off into the nearby harbor.

It’s not a terribly huge church (about 100 feet x 100 feet), but its interior is impressive in its contrast with the curve-laden exterior; a 19th-century renovation had the goal of “cleansing of excess ornamentation.“ That left the church with its beautiful black-and-white marble floors, massive pillars, and beautiful detail work around the apse and altar. I’ve seen no pictures of it before the renovation, but the result is beautiful.

The Cathedral is named for the Virgin Mary, but it and the archdiocese of Havana are also closely associated with Saint Christopher (or Cristobal). Although in recent years the Church has demoted Saint Christopher from the ranks of the saints, you’d never know it here, where veneration for his namesake, Christopher Columbus, also runs high.

In fact, when Spanish rule in Santo Domingo ended in 1795, Columbus’s remains were brought here, and remained until Spain lost the island to the U.S. and took the coffin to Seville.

Oh, and here’s a lowly parishioner, a few days after Three Kings Day, patiently waiting for his role in next year’s Nativity pageant.