CDMX, Mexico.- Located on the same corner where the Santa Catalina road and Palatino street intersect, one of the most exotic mansions in Mexico survives. Havana. Although its name was “La Quinta de Las Delicias”, it has been popularly known as “La finca de los monos”.
The building was built in 1906 and was designed by the French architect Charles B. Brun, who was inspired by the French Gothic, Neo-Gothic and Neo-Moorish styles. Therefore, the Havana house, which adjoins one of the sides of the Sports City, has the shape of a castle.
But it was not its attractive appearance that made this place one of the most emblematic in the Cuban capital; but the peculiar inhabitants who lived in it.
More than 200 primates of 40 species lived on the land of this property. The monkeys were accompanied by a tiger, brown bears, an elephant, peacocks, macaws, canaries, Japanese roosters, crocodiles, horses, deer. They also had pets such as cats and dogs. This was the first zoo in Cuba.
Such creatures were under the care of the philanthropist Rosalía Abreu, who had a special predilection for primates and studied their behavior for scientific purposes.
Rosalía was considered by several renowned institutions, including Yale University, as a pioneer in non-medical experimental physiology.
As a curious fact, we add that she was not the only philanthropist in the family. Her sister, Marta Abreu, is referenced in Cuban history books as the Villa Clara patriot who made the most donations to the independence cause.
Returning to Rosalía, under her supervision, Las Delicias achieved the world’s first captive chimpanzee birth.The Online Tours blog He points out that in this space they also managed to reproduce orangutans in captivity. At the time, Abreu managed to own the largest private reserve of primates.
some legends
Such a special place could not escape the creations of the curious. Many legends were woven around the monkey farm, some of them scary.
For example, the popular voice promoted that one of the primates, in love with Rosalía, strangled a farm worker out of jealousy. That has not been verified. Neither did the primates dress as servants and perform domestic activities, as if they were humans.
Some myths are even more improbable and place one of the monkeys as Rosalía’s driver and others eating with cutlery and drinking from glasses.
It is also said that Jimmy, perhaps the owner’s favorite, dressed as a human being and accompanied her out of the mansion.
After their death, the primates were transferred to another place where they received the required care.
At the height of 2023, the property that became one of the most exotic places in Cuba is renovated and without animals. Today it is a “technological palace” that is part of the project of the Cuban state-owned IT and Audiovisual Media company Cinesoft.
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