After the town of Havana was founded, the former extramural place that the Parque de la Fraternidad occupies today, stayed as a desolate area for centuries, because it was a mangrove swamp with abundant trees, and therefore barely passable. Towards 1790 this area became an area that the army used for the military exercises.  Even though the military area, called Campo de Marte, was extended and ameliorated according the project of the Belgian engineer Augustin Cramer in 1793, it had still a wild appearance.  Bishop Juan José Díaz de Espada (1756-1832) put the area in order by improving its layout and installing lighting. Espada was one of the most important figures of the first half of the 19th century. His efforts on renovating and modernizing the island is considered a determining factor at the process of forming a Cuban culture. During the rule of the Captain General Don Miguel Tacón (1834-1838) the area was included in the beautification project of the city. Campo de Marte that occupied about 27.000 m2, was surrounded by a stone wall with metal spear that was one meter high to avoid the passers of the hazards of the military exercises. Majestic gates were opened at each cardinal point of the wall, crowned by coat of arms. The names of some important figures were given to each gate, so that the gate at the north was called Cortés, at the south, Pizarro, at the east, Tacón and at the west, Columbus.

The place is remembered also by a number of historical events that occurred here. In 1800 the Cuban actor Francisco Covarrubias, known as the father of the Cuban theatre, put on his plays in a tent, called El Circo, that was installed in Campo de Marte. In 1856, after a few unsuccessful attempts, the intrepid Portuguese Matías Pérez rose to the heights with his hot-air balloon La Villa de Paris from the Campo de Marte, but he never returned back, as he disappeared in the ocean. At the present time, when something vanishes suddenly, you may hear that a Cuban may say “voló como Matías Pérez (flew away like Matías Pérez)”. In 1890 the workers in Havana celebrated May 1, the International Worker’s Day, for the first time in Cuba by parades in this area, but the following years the celebrations that would be held in open areas, were prohibited by the Spanish colonial government. In the second decade of the 19th century, it was a place where bullrings were organized.

In the second half of the 19th century, the idea of erecting a monument, dedicated to Christopher Columbus, in the center of the Campo de Marte and transferring his ashes from the Cathedral of Havana to this monument, had many proponents, and many people were almost certain that this place would carry the name of the Genoese sailor, but the project was confronted with big resistance of the bishop, so that it was called off by itself by passage of time. Even so, the place was known as Parque Colon for a long time.