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Por el fuego las almas henchidas
Y latiendo con fe el corazón
A la patria y a las artes unidas
Vuelva abrirse risueña mansión.[1]
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A visual impact
José Salvador Acosta O ’Bryan was the architect of the splendid building that identifies this association. Its construction began in 1926 and ended in 1928. Its eclectic style is imposed in one of the fundamental squares of the city: Mercedarian Square, today Workers Square.
The consecutive carpanel and semicircular arches, the pilasters that end in Doric capitals, contribute to the front and side facades. The most visible and distinctive component is the semicircular angle where both facades meet. It is presided over by a carpanel arch, which supports two levels topped by a parapet that accentuates the movement of the forms, and amazes the public at the lookout tower whose dome surprises every spectator.
The balustrades underline the upper levels, located on the parapet and on the balcony and window railings. The recesses and projections caused by the pilasters and openings with an all-wood carpentry and glass lights give it a beauty and a unique rhythm in the city’s framework. On the ground floor, the wide marble steps invite you to enter, large lounges, decorated mosaic floors and an imposing staircase also made of carrara marble with iron bars crafted with artistic mastery seals the exquisite taste.
A visual interpretation of the space
The splendor of the building tries to be damaged. The presence of a two-level building in the art deco style, today the radio station Radio Cadena Agramonte, prevents us from fully observing the building unit. However, the perpendicular artery that leads the passerby to the heart of the old Mercedarian Square, the Workers Square, is attracted by the force of a construction that with only its main portal is located in a worthy place in the history of local, Cuban and Hispanic American architecture.
Certainly the Workers Square is seen as a platform for a stylistic concurrence from the architectural point of view rarely seen in the city. Like a postcard, not only eclecticism is present, but also modernism with crystals as closure of openings, and two apartment buildings that are erected on businesses. By way of closing or opening depending on where your visual tour begins, the Church and Convent of La Merced, shows influences from the Spanish Baroque and Mannerism.
In this visual concert of frank polyphony, the former Santa Cecilia Popular Association, today the Convention Center of the Office of the Historian, perpetuates itself as one of the symbolic attractions of the historic world heritage center.
Bibliography
(S/A) 1921. Notas históricas de la Benemérita sociedad Santa Cecilia de Camagüey. Compañía impresora de Camagüey. Independencia 24.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
[1] Hymn dedicated to the Popular Society of Santa Cecilia.
