CubaPLUS Magazine

Laminated again in gold, this time 24 carats, on the occasion of the celebrations for the half millennium of the founding of Havana, the imposing Statue of the Republic, the third largest sculpture placed indoors in the world.

Many of the assistants or followers of the celebration of the 500 years of the Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana, founded on November 16, 1519, knew then that the last repair returned the initial splendor to the work of the outstanding Italian sculptor Ángelo Zanelli. (1879-1942), creator of two statues of the famous Cuban Capitol, that of Labor and the tutelary Virtue of the nation, placed at the entrance, on both sides of the building.

Measuring 14.60 meters high, sitting on a 2.50-meter marble pedestal, and weighing about 49 tons, it reproduces a Creole version of the Greek goddess Athena (Minerva for the Romans), conceived from the body point of view based on the forms of a mestizo woman (Lily Valty), while a white Cuban (Elena de Cárdenas Echarte) posed for her face.

The deity of wisdom and just wars, chosen as the emblem of our Republic, appears triumphant, dressed in her Greek tunic and a Phrygian cap, carrying in her hands a shield and a spear. Commissioned to the Italian artist by one of the ministers of the tyrant Gerardo Machado, named Carlos Miguel de Céspedes, after two years the work was sent to Cuba from Italy and installed in time for the lavish inauguration of the Capitol, held in May 1929.

The monument was built in bronze and is made up of three large pieces that must have been assembled in the place they occupy inside the Hall of the Lost Steps, just below the great dome, also today with a golden outer cover, prior to the inauguration of the great complex of the place.

As you can imagine, the passage of time took its toll on Zanelli's great artistic work, which many years ago lost its golden shine given by an electrolytic process, leaned to one side, and accumulated harmful particles, which required three saving interventions. made in 1983, 1990, and 2006, before the great intervention and new laminate the current one- made by the half millennium of Havana, with the specialized participation and material help of artists and authorities of the Russian Federation.