{"id":2073,"date":"2024-01-29T17:02:30","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T21:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/?p=2073"},"modified":"2024-01-29T17:04:10","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T21:04:10","slug":"the-biggest-monument-to-jose-marti-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/the-biggest-monument-to-jose-marti-photos-29012024\/","title":{"rendered":"The biggest monument to Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed (+Photos)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inaugurated by Fidel Castro on 27 January 1996 at the base of the obelisk that dominates Havana’s Plaza de la Revoluci\u00f3n, the Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed Monument is undoubtedly the largest monument dedicated to the apostle in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of the monument dates back to 1937, when a Pan-American design competition was held, but none of the proposals met the requirements and the project was postponed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New competitions were held successively in 1939, 1940 and 1943, when the design by the architect Aquiles Maza and the sculptor Juan Jos\u00e9 Sucre, with the idea of creating a library-museum inside the obelisk to preserve the master’s ideas, finally won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Detail of the statue of Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed in the Plaza de la Revoluci\u00f3n Photo: Gilberto Gonz\u00e1lez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The second prize was awarded to the architects Govantes and Cabarrocas, who presented a project for a monumental library, which was built and is now the Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed National Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third prize was won by Enrique Luis Varela, who led a team of architects, and consisted of an obelisk in the shape of a five-pointed star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Fulgencio Batista seized power by force on 10 March 1952, he ordered the construction of the monument in an attempt to clean up his image, which had been tarnished by violence. To this end, he imposed the levying of a day’s credit for each worker, in addition to raising taxes and other methods of raising money to finance the construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Partial interior view of the Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed Memorial Photo: Gilberto Gonz\u00e1lez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The prevailing corruption in that government led to several scandals surrounding the project, starting with the awarding of the work to Enrique Luis Varela, the third prize winner, to favour him because he was in charge of the Public Works Department at the time. In addition, the press of the time reported on the mistreatment of the inhabitants of the shanty towns that occupied the area chosen for the Civic Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction finally began in 1953, and by the end of 1958 the obelisk and the statue of Mart\u00ed had been erected, but the surroundings and the stand were still missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not until 1961 that what was then known as Plaza C\u00edvica (Civic Square) was completed, and shortly afterwards it was renamed Plaza de la Revoluci\u00f3n Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed (Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed Revolution Square).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bronze sculpture by Cuban artist Rita Longa inside the Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed Memorial. Photo: Gilberto Gonz\u00e1lez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The obelisk is 109 metres high and rises 30 metres above sea level. At the top of the tower is a lookout that offers a panoramic view of Havana for up to 50 kilometres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The historical importance of Plaza de la Revoluci\u00f3n grew after January 1959, when it became a place where the Cuban people gathered to celebrate or commemorate, and to show the world our sovereign and patriotic spirit and our determination to defend the Revolution at all costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why the Obelisk and the Plaza are the greatest monument to the Apostle, not only because of their size, but also because of their historical dimension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Views of Havana from the lookout at the Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed Memorial. Photo: Gilberto Gonz\u00e1lez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Luis E. Amador Dominguez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inaugurated by Fidel Castro on 27 January 1996 at the base of the obelisk that dominates Havana’s Plaza de la Revoluci\u00f3n, the Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed Monument is undoubtedly the largest monument dedicated to the apostle in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,50,575,89,576,35],"ppma_author":[109],"class_list":["post-2073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-cuba","tag-cuba","tag-havana","tag-havanas-plaza-de-la-revolucion","tag-jose-marti","tag-jose-marti-monument","tag-luis-e-amador-dominguez"],"authors":[{"term_id":109,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"gilberto-gonzalez-garcia","display_name":"Gilberto Gonz\u00e1lez Garc\u00eda","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2073"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2089,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions\/2089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2073"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}