Havana History

The Plaza de Armas was the colonial center of official and public life in the City of Havana and there now stands a monument called The Temple. In its column is a commemorative inscription in Latin, almost erased, which translates as follows:

“Stop step, walking, decorating the site with a tree, a leafy ceiba rather tell memorable sign of prudence and ancient religion of the young city, because its shade was certainly solemnly slain in this city the author of the health.

The column commemorates the founding of the city and was erected by Governor Don Francisco Cagigal de la Vega in 1754.

Before the founding of Havana in its current location, the city had between 1514 and 1519, at least two different settlements. That of 1514, one of the first maps of Cuba, Paolo Forlano, and 1564 places the town at the mouth of the river, right along Onicaxinal Beach Mayabeque, on the southern coast of Cuba and another settlement in La Chorrera, which is now in the neighborhood of Vedado, close to Almendares River, which the Indians called Casiguaguas where the founders tried to dam the water, preserved today in the walls of hydraulic containment of this work, the oldest Caribe.

And the final settlement, which commemorates The Temple as the sixth town founded by the Spanish Crown on the island of Cuba, called San Cristobal de La Habana by Panfilo de Narvaez, perhaps because the holy rivers crossed leaning on a palm tree as a cane, and Havana, name of obscure origin, could come from Habaguanex, name of the Indian chief, lord of these lands, cited by Diego Velazquez de Cuellar in his relationship to the King of Spain.

Havana resurfaced on several occasions from the rubble and ashes that reduced it from time to time by pirates and French privateers during the first half of the sixteenth century, until in 1561 the Crown had the city as the place of concentration for the Spanish ships from the American colonies before leaving for the ocean crossing, so that they built military defenses at the entrance to the Bay of Havana and at strategic sites to manage to make it the best defended city in the New World.

Gold and silver, alpaca wool of the Andes, emeralds from Colombia, Cuba and Guatemala mahogany, leather from the Guajira, spices, logwood Campeche, corn, potato, cassava, cocoa are the raw materials that come in sailboats were the best protected in America. Between March and August they formed large convoys, guarded by military vessels, leaving for holidays to Spain. With them, thousands of sailors, officers, settlers, traders and adventurers arrived in the emerging city, which grew from the port at dizzying pace.

On 20th December 1592, Philip II conferred the title of Havana city, twenty-nine years after the governor of Cuba moved to her official residence from Santiago de Cuba, headquarters which was, until then, the government of the island. The strategic importance of Havana and the riches that came to it, split the coveted goal of pirates and galleons of marque of enemy powers of the Spanish Crown.

Havana was strengthened in the seventeenth century by the order of the kings who signed the “Key to the New World” and bulwark of the West Indies. At the same time, the city was built with the most abundant materials on the island: the woods; which provide the architecture of the time a particular charm in combination with the styles coming from the Iberian Peninsula and, most severely, the Canary Islands.

In 1649 a plague epidemic arrived in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, which exterminated one third of the population of Havana. On 30th November 1665, the Queen Mariana of Austria, widow of Philip IV, confirmed the old shield of Cuba, which had as its heraldic, the first three castles of the city: the De La Real Fuerza; the Three Saints Reyes del Morro and San Salvador de la Punta. A gold key symbolizes the title of “Key to the New World,” awarded to the city since ancient times.

El Morro lighthouse is located within the fortress known as the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, built in 1845 and consists of an octagonal cupola metal crystals specially designed to guide ships and aircraft. Located about 45 meters above sea level, its light has a range of 18 nautical miles with two flashes of light every 15 seconds, helping to avoid accidents due to bad weather or poor visibility. El Faro, near the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, has become a symbol of Havana, the capital of all Cubans.

During the seventeenth century the city was enhanced by monumental civic and religious buildings. These include the convent of San Agustin, the castle of El Morro, the chapel of Humilladero, the fountain of Dorotea de la Luna in La Chorrera, the church of Santo Angel Custodio, San Lazaro Hospital, the Monastery of Santa Teresa, the convent of San Felipe Neri, and in 1728 they founded the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Jerome in the convent of St. John Lateran