A garden of spirituality and peace in Old Havana

In a privileged environment of Old Havanaat the back of the Convent of San Francisco de Asís and right next to the square of the same name, is a unique site of the cuban capital.

The Madre Teresa de Calcutta Garden, a few meters from the Havana bay and the tourist bustle of this part of the city, is a space of spirituality and peace, a place that invites rest and introspection, and that, from its unusual tranquility , pays homage to the venerable nun and other relevant figures.

Inaugurated in 1999, just a year and a half after the death of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, the garden has a moving sculpture of Mother Teresa, which captures all her humanity and consecration in an act as intimate as reading.

The image is a work of the notable Cuban artist José Villa Soberón, who sculpted the saint in bronze, dressed in her traditional habit and sitting on a stone, at the foot of a cross. In this way, the piece reflects “the intense spirituality and supreme humility of that great woman in a world martyred by poverty, war and the pain of those who suffer and suffer”, in the words of the late historian Eusebio Leal Spengler.

Precisely the garden is also the final resting place of Leal, the already legendary restorer of Old Havana, whose remains rest there since December 2020. But they are not the only ones. Other prominent figures of Cuban history and culture accompany him, including his teacher and first historian of Havana, Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, and his wife, María Benítez.

The film director Octavio Cortázar, the ceramist Marta Arjona, the painter Juan Vicente Rodríguez Bonachea, the photojournalist Liborio Noval, the poet Jesús Orta Ruiz “El Indio Naborí”, and the recently deceased troubadour Vicente Feliú, are other prominent artists who there they rest.

The rest of the elements of the garden also pay tribute to peace and contemplation: its plants and trees, its various sculptures, its mostly silent bells, its benches for resting. In the place, moreover, is also the Sacred Greek Orthodox Cathedral San Nicolás de Mira consecrated, almost 20 years ago, in 2004, by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I.

With all this, the Mother Teresa of Calcutta Garden welcomes visitors with an invitation to peace and spiritual rest. A few days ago, our photographer Otmaro Rodríguez was there, who proposes us to discover this peaceful and wonderful place in Havana through his snapshots.

Resting place of the first historian of Havana, Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, and his wife María Benítez. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.

Resting place of the ashes of the Historian Salvador E. Morales Pérez. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.

Other funeral plaques in the Mother Teresa of Calcutta Garden, in Old Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.