In 1845, when the Obispo street was expanded to solve the traffic problem, the facade of the convent lost all of its beautiful decoration. The building became first the depository of the Real Cuerpo de Ingenieros; then the Instituto de Segunda Enseňanza de La Habana was inaugurated in the southern part of the building in 1863. José Martí is one of the students of this institute. Later, in 1876, a pawnshop, Monte de Piedad, and the first police station occupied some rooms of the building, and in 1887 it became the seat of the Loma de la Pirotecnia Militar. In 1902, when the University of Havana moved to the Aróstegui hill in the Vedado district of Havana, some faculties remained in the building of the old convent.

In 1916 the old convent was sold to the firm Zaldo y Co. in a public auction to build a commercial center that would cover all the plot. Even though the demolition process was initiated immediately, the project did not come true. It stayed half demolished until 1950s, when the National Bank of Cuba decided to install his offices in a new building there. The demolition process continued despite the protests, so that finally the bank declared off the fustigated project and endorsed it over to the Terminal de Helicópteros SA in 1957 that wanted to construct a modern office building with a helicopter terminal on the roof. The commercial building with a helipad on the roof that was inaugurated in 1958, went never into operation and remained untouched for years.

After the revolution in 1959, first the Ministry of Estates, then the Ministry of Education occupied the building, the latter staying here until 1990s.

CURRENT BUILDING

In 2000 the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana decided to recreate the vanished image of the old convent. The massive concrete structure was surrounded by a glass envelope. One of the cloisters was restored and converted into the symbolic “patio of the laurels” of the first Cuban university. The space of the main nave was rescued, and its auditorium function was reassigned. The splendid baroque doorway on the Mercaderes street was reinterpreted by the stones from Michoacán quarries in Mexico. The campanile that contains the original bell is restored.

There are four statues standing in line in front of the building in the Plazuela de Santo Domingo on the Mercaderes street. They belong to the Portuguese poet Luiz Vaz de Camóes, the British writer William Shakespeare, the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra and the Italian thinker and writer Dante Alighieri respectively.

Shakespeare is represented as talking to a skull in his hand like in Hamlet: ”to be or not to be”. The statue of Cervantes is unveiled in 2017 and it is the work of the Cuban sculptor José Villa Soberón. The writer is represented standing. He is slightly leaning on his right leg and writing something with his quill pen. From his waist hangs a sword, referring to his life as a soldier. The statue of Dante was unveiled in 1921, and it is also the work of the sculptor José Villa Soberón.

THE MUSEO DE LA UNIVERSITAD

The building today houses the Museo de la Universidad (Tuesday-Saturday 09:30-17:00, Sunday 09:30-13:00) that displays miscellaneous objects, related to the early period of the university. The entrance is on the O’Reilly street. Basically, it consists of two exhibition rooms. In the first room you will see a model of the building.  Some details about the model are given on panels. The second important object in this first room is the statue of Virgen de las Nieves (Virgin of Snow). Virgen de las Nieves is an ancient Marian invocation that dates back to the fourth century and is widespread in Italy, Spain, Latin America and Portugal. The limestone statue was made in Cuba in the 17th century and belonged to the Convento de San Juan de Letrán.

In the second exhibition room, you will find the statue of Santo Domingo, represented during his pray to God. The polychrome wooden statue was carved in Spain in the 18th century. Some pages from singing books, printed on leather or parchment, are exhibited in showcases. They all are printed in Spain in the 18th century and belonged to the Order of Santo Domingo. More interesting are the minutes of the Town Hall (cabildo) in 1688. Finally, you will see the gravestone of a military engineer and his wife, written in Catalan language.

Since 2003 it is occupied by the Colegio Universitario San Gerónimo de La Habana, and The Dominican friars are transferred to the new church in Vedado, the Convento de San Juan de Létran.