CubaPLUS Magazine

In front of the Plaza de Armas and very close to the old bay of Carenas, a small neoclassical monument was inaugurated on March 19, 1828, known as the Templete in commemoration of the place where history points out the first founding mass and town hall were held. the town of San Cristóbal de La Habana.

So it is that this imitation of a Greco-Roman temple is impregnated with symbolism and more so because a ceiba tree grows next to it, a tree full of meanings in Cuban culture and spirituality, heir to the one that they say existed in the early days of the city, that November 16, 1519.

Colonel Don Antonio María de la Torre y Cárdenas, under the auspices of the Captain General and Governor Francisco Dionisio Vives and the Bishop of Havana Juan José Díaz de Espada y Fernández de Landa, had much to do with the construction of the architectural work.
We are talking about a site anchored in the Historic Center of Havana, declared a World Heritage Site since 1982.

Inside, three works by the French painter Juan Bautista Vermay, a resident of Cuba and one of the founders of the San Alejandro School, are exhibited.

These canvases evoke the first mass, the first town hall, and a main image that reproduces a staging of the act of blessing the place and the mass of the Bishop of Espada, with the assistance of the Captain General, the aristocracy and high-ranking government officials of the time. .

For many years, it has been a tradition of sorcery, followed by thousands of people from the capital and tourists, going to the temple on the eve of the city's birthday, and in long lines they advance to reach the symbolic ceiba tree, give it three turns and ask for three wishes, which everyone trusts must be fulfilled.

It is one of the most beautiful traditions of the city, which adds greater appreciation and esteem for El Templete, on the part of the residents of the city. Special place of pilgrimage that is also very close to the Plaza de Armas, as we already said, the airy and beautiful Avenida del Puerto. A perfect tour.