El Capitolio (National Capitol of Cuba)
Domed 1929 parliament building in central Havana, visited on guided tours of its halls and rotunda.
The National Capitol was built between 1926 and 1929 under President Gerardo Machado and inaugurated on 20 May 1929. Designed by Eugenio Rayneri Piedra with Evelio Govantes and Felix Cabarrocas, and engineered by the American firm Purdy and Henderson, it drew on the Pantheon in Paris and the United States Capitol without copying either. Its stone dome rises about 92 metres and was for a time among the tallest in the world, dominating the skyline of central Havana.
The building housed the Cuban Congress until 1959 and then the Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment. A long restoration begun in 2010 returned it to legislative use, and since 2018 it has been the seat of the National Assembly of People's Power. Visitors see the Salon de los Pasos Perdidos, the semicircular chambers and the bronze Statue of the Republic by Angelo Zanelli, one of the largest indoor statues anywhere.
Highlights
- Stone dome rising about 92 metres over central Havana
- Statue of the Republic by Angelo Zanelli in the entrance hall
- Salon de los Pasos Perdidos with its vaulted ceiling and marble floors
- Kilometre zero marker set in the floor beneath the dome
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