The Palacio de Aldama is a neoclassical mansion located caddy corner to the old Plaza del Vapor (Parque de el Curita) and in front of the old Campo de Marte; present day Parque de la Fraternidad in Havana, Cuba. Built in 1840 by the Dominican architect and engineer Manuel José Carrera, its main facade of columns spans one block on Calle Amistad between Calles Reina and Estrella.
History
Palace stair
Aldama Palace was assaulted by Spanish volunteers on the night of the January 24, 1869. Its owner at that time, Don Miguel de Aldama and Alfonso - son of the building's builder - was a recognized enemy of Spain and conspirator since Narciso Lopez's time. A man so rich and powerful that, despite his ideas and attitudes, Spain, far from punishing him, wanted to attract him with the offer of a title of marquis that Don Miguel refused. In addition, there was another reason that prompted the most intransigent Spanish element, represented by the volunteers, to the looting of that mansion and was the insistent rumor that, by the will of its owner, that royal palace would be the residence of the presidents of Cuba.
Thus, the Spanish Volunteer Corps assaulted the palace under the pretext that Domingo del Monte had a catch of weapons inside. The looting of the Aldama Palace, three months after the start of the first war for independence, is linked to various events that took place under the command of Captain General Domingo Dulce y Garay, Marquis of Castell-Florit, whose main cause was the encounter between the Spaniards and the Cubans and the hostility that the volunteers felt for the ruler whom they held as weak, and whom they accused of complicity in events contrary to Spain, including, those of Miguel Aldama.[1]
Street riots had occurred on January 12 after the volunteers during a search had found a stash of weapons in a house on Calle Carmen during the burial of Camilo Cepeda, a young Cuban killed in jail. The Volunteers returned on the 24th and a troop of them fired their weapons into the ‘’El Louvre’’ cafe, those who tried to flee, were attacked by bayonet. There were seven dead and numerous wounded, all of them Spanish.[1]
The Third and Fifth battalions, and the Ligeros battalion, concentrated before the Palace and knocked down one of the doors. They said to look for weapons and, indeed, they found them, but not of those that could be used in the manigua in the war against Spain, it was a collection of ancient weapons ——Japanese, Hindu, Norman, Inca, etc.—— that the Aldama had collected. The Spanish Volunteer immediately destroyed the art gallery and searched the cabinets and appropriated everything that could be taken, what could not be carried, they destroyed it. Crockery, lamps, crystals, books, art objects of all kinds were destroyed. They set fire to the damask or lace curtains and doors and windows were torn off or shot. They also visited the wineries of the Palace, lit a bonfire in the Field of Mars and had the carved furniture and oriental tapestries burned.[1]
The Aldama family was saved from the fury of the aggressors for not being in the house, in the care, at that time, of two or three servants who were victims of humiliation and mistreatment. An old English maid was stripped of her life's savings volunteers. That January 24 was Sunday and, like all holidays and holidays, the Aldama spent it at their Santa Rosa farm, in Matanzas. There they received the news and also the threat that the farm would suffer the same fate. They did not delay in leaving the Island and all their properties were confiscated. In New York, Miguel Aldama assumed the direction of the General Agency of the Republic of Cuba in Arms and put at the service of his ideas what was left of his immense fortune. He died in 1888 in exile and in misery.
The looting caused much damage to the property, they only found weapons from the defendant's personal collection. As a result of this assault, Don Aldama left the country. After his death on April 11, 1870, a trial was commenced in Havana to determine if his heirs Miguel and Leonardo Aldama could inherit the property, it was an option denied by the colonial court, and as a result, the Aldana Palace passed on to the metropolitan government. With the signing of the Pact of the Zanjón, the Aldama family had their rights reinstated but never again was the palace occupied by its owners or any family member.[2]
After the death of Don Miguel Aldama, the mansion was auctioned and the new owners installed the tobacco factory "La Corona," which was subsequently sold to the English company "The Havana Cigar and Tobacco Factories Limited," which modified the Palace by adding a third floor. In 1932 after a bloody tobacco strike the company closed the building and in 1945 it was be demolished; by protest of cultural and artistic societies, it was saved and declared a National Monument on June 9, 1949 by decree. Prior to the Cuban Revolution, there was the Mendoza Mortgage Bank, and other private companies.
With the triumph of the Revolution, the building was assigned in 1965 to the Academy of Sciences. In 1968, the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore was installed, which demolished the third floor and restored its original appearance. In 1974 the government made it an institute for the studies of Communism and Socialism. Finally in 1987 it became the Institute of History of Cuba.
Architecture
This palace is constructed of ashlar stone masonry, a finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that was worked until squared or the structure built from it. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruvius as opus isodomum, or less frequently trapezoidal. Precisely cut "on all faces adjacent to those of other stones", ashlar is capable of very thin joints between blocks, and the visible face of the stone may be quarry-faced or feature a variety of treatments: tooled, smoothly polished or rendered with another material for decorative effect.[3][a]
The Palacio de Aldama is actually two houses containing 2 patios each; one for the owner, the Basque Don Domingo de Aldama and Arrechaga, and the other, for his daughter, Rosa de Aldama and Alfonso, the wife of Domingo del Monte.[5] The building is constructed of stonework, and its dining room was designed to house banquets of more than one hundred people.[b]
The portal has a height of two floors, covering the ground floor and the mezzanine. An upper deck is supported by the capital decorations, typical of neoclassical constructions, although it has some elements of the Baroque and the Renaissance.
Notes
^Ashlar blocks have been used in the construction of many buildings as an alternative to brick or other materials.
In classical architecture, ashlar wall surfaces were often contrasted with rustication.
The term is frequently used to describe the dressed stone work of prehistoric Greece and Crete, although the dressed blocks are usually much larger than modern ashlar. For example, the tholos tombs of Bronze AgeMycenae use ashlar masonry in the construction of the so-called "beehive" dome. This dome consists of finely cut ashlar blocks that decrease in size and terminate in a central capstone.[4] These domes are not true domes, but are constructed using the corbel arch.
Ashlar masonry was also heavily used in the construction of palace facades on Crete, including Knossos and Phaistos. These constructions date to the MM III-LM Ib period, ca. 1700–1450 BC.
In modern European masonry the blocks are generally about 35 centimetres (14 in) in height. When shorter than 30 centimetres (12 in), they are usually called small ashlar.
^The patio of the Palacio de las Palmas, the proposed Presidential Palace of the Havana Plan Piloto was recognized by Josep Lluís Sert as a feature of several historical structures in Havana including the Palacio de Aldama. The Palacio de Aldama was one of the grand colonial residences in Havana, and Sert’s notes indicate that he visited it and recognized its patio as a precedent. The Palacio de Aldama was owned by the family of Emilio del Junco’s wife, and del Junco was one of the circle of architects professionally and personally acquainted with Sert and Romañach[6]
Ciudad de La Habana
Cuba
