In addition to being an
excellent park with a rich fauna and flora, the national
monument Quinta de los Molinos is also an important historical
place, as the area was used as the residence of general captains
during the colonial period and Máximo Gómez, the commander of
the Liberation Army. Currently, it hosts the Havana Botanical Garden,
the Máximo Gómez Museum, the Escuela Unificada Felipe Poey Aloy
(Felipe Poey Aloy Unified School) and the Instituto Superior de
Tecnologías y Ciencias Aplicadas (Higher Institute of
Technologies and Applied Sciences).
HISTORY
The area that is known as Quinta de los Molinos today,
was occupying a larger section of the city in the colonial time.
At that time, it was extending to the location of the University
of Havana on the north, to the current Hospital Calixto García
on the northwest, to the Avenida de los Presidentes and to the
Castillo del Príncipe on the west, to the Avenida Salvador
Allende on the south and to the Infanta Street on the east.
The first settlers of the area were the workers
that were hired for the construction of the Castillo del
Príncipe (Prince’s Castle), their families and their relatives.
The castle was named after Prince Charles IV (Carlos
Antonio Pascual Francisco Javier Juan Nepomuceno José Januario
Serafín Diego),
the King of Spain from 1788 to 1808. The hill, on which the
castle was built, was known as Hill of Aróstegui, as it belonged
to Martín Aróstegui, the wealthy tradesman and the president of
the Royal Tobacco Factory that belonged to the Spanish King.
Upon the completion of the construction of the castle in 1797,
the population of the area increased considerably by the
addition of about 1.000 soldiers that were tasked with defending
the castle.
The area was rich of fauna and flora,
so that in 1820s Felipe Poey Aloy, the professor in Natural
Sciences and the founder of the Royal Academy of Medical,
Physical and Natural Sciences of Havana, carried out some
research on plants and animals in this area, particularly in the
current Quinta de los Molinos. Before 1850, the area of the
current Quinta de los Molinos was called
Jardín de Tacón (Garden of Tacón), named after Miguel Tacón y
Rosique, the Spanish Governor and Captain General of Cuba from
1834 to 1838 that was rather successful in the urbanization of
Havana. In 1836, he ordered to construct a rest house, a kind of
summer residence, for the general captains within the current
Quinta de los Molinos.
The place chosen for the rest house, was close to the
area, called Molinas del Rey, where two mills of Martín de
Aróstegui were operating to grind tobacco to obtain snuff.
Snuffing was in great demand at the end of the 18th century
throughout Europe, particularly in Spain. The snuff was consumed
by placing some piece under the nose and breathing the aroma.
The two mills were using the water of the Zanja Real (Royal
Ditch) as moving power.
The Governor
Miguel Tacón has specially added the area to the urbanization
project of Havana due to its great variety of flora and fauna,
but also to take advantage the terraced elevation of the land
from the coast that provides a cool climate in the area.
The
construction of the rest house was entrusted to the
engineers
Francisco Lemaur and Manuel Pastor. They build a modest house
with only one floor. Some small houses, existing in the area
before, were designed for the accommodation of the servants, and
some of them were transformed to stable and garage of the
captain generals.
In 1843, the Governor and the Captain General
Leopoldo O'Donnell y Jorís entrusted the engineer Mariano Carrillo de Albornoz to convert
the modest building to an elegant residence suitable for the use
of the captain generals as a rest house, by adding the upper
floor and the ornamenting the facade. Thus, the mansion looked
like the Creole mansions of the time. It had its own gardens
adjacent to the current Botanical Garden. All these subsequent
extensions costed 20.000 pesos.
Leopoldo O'Donnell moved many furniture and decorative elements
from the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales (current City Museum
of Havana) to the rest house and started to live with his family
in the new residence.
After 1850, the place was called as Quinta de los Molinos, referring to the mills of Martín de Aróstegui. When
these two mills were abandoned in the second half of the 19th
century, the Botanical Garden of Havana was founded next to the
rest house of the general captains in the Molinos del Rey. In
fact, the first botanical garden of Havana was founded in Parque
de la Fraternidad and southern wing of Capitol in 1817. The
prominent Cuban scientist Álvaro Reinoso, the
Father of Scientific Agriculture in Cuba, conducted many
experiments in the
Botanical Garden, dedicated many plots to the cultivation of
sugarcane. The Botanical Garden was managed by the University of
Havana from 1850 to 1871. After eight years in that the
Government undertook the basic works like the drainage system,
cisterns etc., the Botanical Graden returned to the management
of the university that established the Botany School.
In
1899, when the War of Independence in Cuba ended and Paris
treaty was signed, General Maximo Gomez, the head of the
Liberating Army, arrived in Havana. Pedro Perfecto Pascual Lacoste y Grave de Peralta
, the mayor of the city, assigned Quinta
de los Molinos to the headquarters of the Liberating Army and
its Generalissimo. It was as the last residence of Gómez before
he died on June 17, 1905.
In 1906, this garden was inscribed as an important
reference site in the World Botanic Gardens System. In 1936, Hedychium
coronarium found in this place, was registered as the national
flower of Cuba. It is known as mariposa (butterfly) due to its
shape. Women used to adorn themselves with these fragrant
flowers in the colonial time. They hid and carried secret
messages under it during the War of Independence in Cuba, as the
inflorescence has an intricate structure. These flowers can be
found on Sierra del Rosario in Pinar del Rio, on Escambray
mountains between Santa Clara and Cienfuegos and on Sierra
Maestra in Santiago de Cuba.
On May 1, 1902, the transfer of the university
began to the hill of Aróstegui. Moving the university so close
led to that all the social events, protests and clash with
security forces that took place in the university until the
revolution, were somehow reflected to Quinta de los Molinos. It
functioned also as a military training site for attackers at the
Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Many revolutionaries have
been in this area, some for their education and some to improve
themselves on the struggle against the bloody Batista regime.
At the end of 1956 the Enrique José Varona
Pedagogical Institute was built within the area of the Quinta de
los Molinos. During the construction, two huge natural stone
bricks belonging to one of the tobacco mills were unearthed and
preserved. These molars were buried about two and a half meters
deep and were accidentally found and brought to light during the
excavations on the ground. The work was finished in mid-1957.
The wheels of the mill were carefully removed thanks to the
responsible behavior of the architect. Currently the name of the
school is Escuela Unificada Felipe Poey Aloyin honor of the Cuban scientist who
conducted research in that area.
In the territory of the
Escuela Unificada Felipe Poey Aloy, there is a tree commonly
called a cannonball whose scientific name is Couroupita
gianensis. This tree is extremely rare in Cuba and is native to
Costa Rica, Panama and Brazil. Its fruits are shaped like an old
cannonball, that's why it's called that. Its trunk reaches a
great height.
After the triumph of the Revolution, in 1986
the Máximo Gómez Museum was established.
In 1987, Quinta de
los Molinos was declared a National Monument.
