El Cobre, Cuban Site for Tourism and Veneration
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by: chichocojo
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The arrival of visitors to the chapel of El Cobre, in Santiago de Cuba, is a routine, much related to all those mysticism found in this place among mountains and with legends of sailors, brave sea, encounters and disagreements.
This place features a much typical church, of red dome and bright walls, where they keep, since ancient times, the figure of the Virgen de la Caridad de El Cobre, Cuban patron saint.
A leaflet distributed in the Chapel by its keepers, reads that in 1608, two men and a slave boy found the figure of the Virgin in the north-eastern Bahía de Nipe, with an engraving identifying it as such.
Some historians have added other versions with a different date of this discovery, due to the fact that they refer to the West Indies Archive of Seville, Spain, where there are descriptions (since 1687) of the old man Juan Moreno, one the three characters, 10 years old at the moment, by which they deduce the date of 1606 as the time when it took place this happening.
Nevertheless, most of the documents and studies coincide in that the sailors were named Juan and Rodrigo de Hoyos and the black boy Juan Moreno, who went for salt and discover in the bay the figure of the Virgin on top of a wood with a golden cross in its right hand and Jesus in its left arm.
On August 12, 1898, after finished the war of the Cuban mambises (rebels against the Spanish colonization), the Cuban general Calixto García sent his General Staff to hold a solemn mass and a Te Deum of Thanks Giving in the place.
Other important happenings are the order, in 1915, of mambises verterans to the Pope Benedict XV of the proclamation of the Cuban patron saint, the inauguration of the current Church on Sptember 8, 1927, and the visit of the African Cardinal Bernardín Gantin as his messenger, with the purpose of proclaiming the Chapel, “Basilica Menor” (Minor Basilica).
The National Sanctuary and Basilica El Cobre is located 19 kilometres from the city of Santiago de Cuba, along the central road, very easy to reach.
It is a rectangular building with beige walls touched with the red dome, of strong contrasts with the green of the mountains.
The altar of the Virgin was built in marbles and it is generally facing the chapel of the Sanctuary, which can be reached from the back, located above the “Capilla de los Milagros” (Chapel of the Miracles), where lay the gifts of thousands of pilgrims.
The Church was built on top of a hill surrounded by the houses of the town. This hill is high enough to watch from there all the beautiful and mountainous landscape of Santiago de Cuba, and a monument to the slaves who used to rebel against their ruthless owners, tribute to both, the African freedom and the freedom of arts.
About the Author
San Cristobal UK is a Tailor-Made Cuba holiday specialist and has a vast experience in organizing holidays to Cuba. This is one of a series of articles devoted to promote the Cuban Culture and to give information on what to do and see in your travel to Cuba.
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