Page 233 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

SANTIA GO DE CUBA  231

The lovely wooden inlaid choir in the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
R Catedral de Nuestra E Casa Natal de José objects, wooden ceilings and
Señora de la Asunción María Heredia tiled floors, and is well worth a
Calle Heredia, e/ Lacret y Félix Peña. Calle Heredia 260, e/ Hartmann visit. From the large entrance
Tel (22) 628 502. Open 8:30am– (San Félix) y Pío Rosado (Carniceria). hall, with a coffered ceiling and
12:30pm, 5–7:30pm Tue–Sat, 8–10am, Tel (22) 625 350. Open 9am–noon paintings of the poet’s ancestors
5–6:30pm Sun. 5 6:30pm Tue–Fri, Mon, 9am–7pm Tue–Fri, 9am–1pm on the walls, a large arch leads
5pm Sat, 9am & 6:30pm Sun. Sun. & 8 Note: fee for photography into the central peristyled
The cathedral of Santiago, may apply. courtyard. Here there are
which was extensively restored This is the modest but elegant wooden columns, a stone
in 2014, has a basilica 18th-century house well and abundant vegetation.
layout, with a central where the nationalist Other rooms in the house
nave and four aisles, poet José María include Heredia’s bedroom with
an apse and a Heredia (1803–39) its impressive mahogany bed
narthex or vestibule was born. Heredia, and elegant antique lamps.
at the back. The highly regarded for Cultural events and poetry
church was originally his odes to nature readings are often held in the
built in 1522, but in (see p32), should not museum’s large porticoes.
the 17th century a Interior of the be confused with In addition, every year literary
series of pirate raids cathedral’s dome his cousin, a French seminars and workshops are
caused so much Parnassian poet, who held here as part of the Fiesta
damage that the church had to was also born in Cuba but spent del Caribe, or Fiesta del Fuego.
be built from scratch in 1674. practically all his life in Europe. This summer cultural event
This church was subsequently The well-preserved house takes over the entire city of
rebuilt and then destroyed by contains period furniture and Santiago (see p39).
an earth quake in 1766.
The existing church, built in
1818, displays a mixture of
styles, the result of a series of
changes made by the architect
Carlos Segrera Fernández in
1922. He added the bell towers,
had the interior painted, and
also reworked the façade.
A marble angel was set over
the main entrance and statues
of Christopher Columbus and
Bartolomé de las Casas were
placed in side niches.
The cathedral also has a
museum, the Museo Eclesiástico,
which displays frescoes by the
Dominican friar Luis Desangles,
liturgical objects, statues and
an important collection of
ecclesiastical music scores. Entrance hall of Heredia’s house, its arch leading to the courtyard

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