Instituto Técnico Militar

Instituto Técnico Militar
Colegio de Belen Logo. Havana, Cuba.jpg
Colegio de Belen. Havana, Cuba.jpg
Former namesColegio de Belén
General information
TypeEducational
Architectural styleEclectic
LocationMarianao
Town or cityCoat of arms of La Habana.svg Ciudad de La Habana
CountryCuba Cuba
Coordinates23°05′46″N 82°25′01″W / 23.096°N 82.417°W / 23.096; -82.417Coordinates: 23°05′46″N 82°25′01″W / 23.096°N 82.417°W / 23.096; -82.417
Current tenantsCuban military
Named forThe Palace of Education
Opened1925
OwnerCuban military
Technical details
Structural systemSteel frame
Floor count4
Grounds60 Acres
Design and construction
ArchitectLeonardo Morales y Pedroso
Architecture firmMorales & Cia

The Instituto Técnico Militar (lit. Technical Military Institute), originally designed as the Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, it is located at 45th and 66th streets in Marianao, Havana, Cuba.[1]

History

Colegio de Belén (1854-1925)

Her Majesty Isabella II, Queen of Spain, issues a royal charter in the year 1854 founding the Colegio de Belén (Belen School) in Havana, Cuba. Belen School begins its educational work in the building formerly occupied by the convent and convalescent hospital of Our Lady of Belen, hence the name of the school.[2] A meteorological observatory was established in 1857. A facility was built in 1896.[3]

In 1961 the government of Fidel Castro (a former graduate of Belen) confiscated all private and religious schools in Cuba. Castro expelled the Jesuits and declared the government of Cuba an atheist government.[4] Castro's government nationalized businesses and banks, confiscating more than $1 billion in American-owned property. Thousands of those dubbed “enemies of the revolution” were executed or imprisoned, and school curriculum was reshaped by communist doctrine. Free speech was not an option, and the Cuban socialist press was an extension of the government.[5]

Architecture

Colegio de Belen_Floor plan, Havana, Cuba

The building was constructed on sixty acres of land that had been donated and was to be used as the main building of the Colegio de Belén, which had been open since 1854 within the premises of the convent of the same name in Old Havana, those premises had become unsuitable and badly located due to the change of atmosphere in the neighborhood and the growth of the city. The project was designed by the Cuban architectural firm of Morales & Cia (Leonardo Morales y Pedroso) in 1925 an unlimited budget for designing a religious school, the Jesuit Colegio de Belén.[2]

The result was a monumental pan-optical edifice with an extensive neoclassical facade perpendicular to the chapel and four large courtyards with three stories of porticoed galleries to link nine radial pavilions. The appearance is of extreme monumentality which is supported both in the design resources and the unusual dimensions of the spaces. The structure is built from concrete-covered steel, the flooring and roof are monolithic reinforced concrete.

The chapel had two aisles and a central nave, being higher, has a mural by Hipolito Hidalgo de Caviedes (1901–1994). El Colegio de Belen was known as "The Palace of Education." It is a Cuban National Monument.

Gallery

Images from the 1950s of the Colegio de Belen:

References

  1. ^ Cuba Annual Report: 1985 p82 Voice of America-Radio Marti Program, Office of Research and Policy, United States Information Agency - 1987 "The first of February 1987 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Technical Military Institute (Instituto Técnico Militar — ITM), currently ..."
  2. ^ a b "Belen Jesuit Preparatory School". Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  3. ^ Mariano Gutiérrez-Lanza (1904). Apuntes historicos acerca del Observatorio del Colegio de Belén, Habana (in Spanish). Havana: Impr. Avisador comercial.
  4. ^ "RELIGIOUS REPRESSION IN CUBA: Its Evolution and Present Status". Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  5. ^ "Fidel Castro: From Catholic schoolboy to dictator". Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  • La Habana, Guia de Arquitectura, Maria Elena Zequeira & Eduardo Luis Rodriguez Fernandez, editors (Sevilla, Spain: A.G. Novograf, S.A., 1998) ISBN 84-8095-143-5 (in Spanish)

This page was last updated at 2019-11-13 08:02 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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