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Convent of San Francisco de Asís: syncretism, art and religion

orula san francisco

El Convent of San Francisco de Asís, is one of the most beautiful architectural exponents of Old Havana, with an exquisite Baroque façade in clear cream tones, which highlights the passing of the decades since its foundation.

Its construction began in the year 1548 and lasted until 1591, but it was completely finished almost 200 years later, in 1738, due to the elaboration of its structure.

Its façade is located on Calle Oficios and contains three stone statues representing the Immaculate Conception, San Francisco de Asís and Santo Domingo de Guzmán.

Church of San Francisco de Asís: Cuban tradition

Its construction was promoted by the Franciscan monks and it was recognized as a location in the privileged western area of ​​the bay. The church of San Francisco de AsísIt also served as a cemetery for the noble settlers of Cuba in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries.

El Convent of San Francisco de Asís in Havana, then gave place to teaching, and the Franciscan monks used it as a high school for centuries.

There they taught classes in Grammar, Philosophy, Theology and Mathematics.

Finally, and after hosting dissimilar activities inside, with the triumph of the Revolution, it was awarded the category of Colonial History museum.

Now it is an installation that houses historical objects of a religious nature and that has the Minor Basilica of the Convent of San Francisco de Asís, a huge room where you can enjoy sacred and chamber music.

Saint Francis of Assisi: syncretism with Orula

Saint Francis of Assisi was a friar who decided to live under the strictest poverty and observance of the Gospels.

His teachings dictate… we must be simple, humble and pure. We must never wish to be above others, but, on the contrary, we must live as servants ...  

As a Catholic saint, San Francisco, was syncretized in Afro-Cuban culture with a deity of the African religion, in this case with the great fortune teller, orula.

Orula is the Orisha of divination, and reveals the future through the secret of Ifá. It has the knowledge of the secret things of the human being and nature, it has all the accumulated knowledge about the history of humanity.

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