After its remodeling, the Capitol will once again be the headquarters of the Cuban Parliament, and in this way it will recover its practical brilliance, while its surroundings and rooms constitute a particular attraction, especially for taking photographs.
With its dome marking the silhouette of a modern and cosmopolitan city, the place also has a brilliant indicator of kilometer zero of the country's roads, a symbol of the development of transportation (copy of the original). Originally assigned to the Congress of the Republic, he went through several occupations, including the headquarters of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.
The property occupies an area of 388,700 square meters between Paseo del Prado, Dragones, Industria and San José streets, and was inaugurated on May 20, 1929.
Precisely around it, places of interest for tourists stand out, such as the Royal Tobacco Factory of Partagás, the Central Park, La Fuente de La India, and the Paseo del Prado or José Martí (in honor of the Cuban National Hero).
As a curious note, its construction lasted three years, two months and days, and the works were directed by the architect Eugenio Raynieri Piedra. Eight thousand people participated in that building and the total value reached 17 million pesos.
Historians remember that until the end of the 1950s, the Senate Chambers of Representatives functioned in both wings of the building.
Dome, staircase and gardens make up a postcard of Havana. The two bronze images that guard the main entrance were the work of the Italian Ángelo Zanelli. The sculpture on the left means work and the one on the right means tutelary virtue.
However, the interior also amazes visitors, because after ascending the 55 steps of the initial staircase they discover wonders. Three large doors appear, also made of bronze, with 10 bas-relief paintings with the national history represented.
Immediately afterwards you arrive at the most famous site in the world: The Hall of the Lost Steps, with an eclectic style and in the center the aforementioned brilliant that marks kilometer zero of Cuba's roads.
In that same room is the statue of the Republic - also the work of Zanelli - (49 tons in weight and 17 meters high), now being renovated.
Others are the added charms of the property such as the Baire, Bolívar, Baraguá, Yara, Jimaguayú, Martí rooms, the Camilo Cienfuegos Hemicycle, or the Stairs of Honor, references to celebrities, and sites from the history of the island and America, in addition a tomb for unknown mambises.
The mambises were the combatants of two wars against Spanish colonialism.
Adorned with galleries where figures, marbles, Venetian mirrors, precious woods such as mahogany, Rococo style silhouettes are imposed, from the Italian Renaissance or Napoleonic France, undoubtedly its beauty forces meditation and arouses the desire to spend some time visiting it.