Basilica Menor de San Francisco de Asis Steeple - La Habana, Cuba
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denben
N 23° 08.225 W 082° 20.923
17Q E 361912 N 2559333
Now a concert hall, the Basilica and the monastery of San Francisco de Asis are located at the Plaza de San Francisco de Asis in Havana, Cuba.
Waymark Code: WMV6N0
Location: Cuba
Date Posted: 03/04/2017
Views: 5
Initiated in its present form in 1716, this religious edifice was the most important symbol of the presence of the Franciscan order in Havana. It is a remake of an original, far simpler church completed by the Franciscans in 1591 but which was seriously damaged by storms in 1680 and 1692, and by a hurricane that toppled its tower in 1694.
The ground plan was in the shape of a Latin cross, with domed ceilings, a nave supported by twelve huge columns representing the Apostles, while its 42 meter-high tower was then the tallest in Havana and the second tallest in Cuba after Trinidad’s Iznaga Tower. It is crowned by a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, whose head was lopped off by a hurricane in 1846. Named by the Pope as a basilica, the church was completed in 1739, extended to the south to a Fransican convent, and was considered Havana’s premier house of worship.
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