Cuba said goodbye to Eusebio Leal, architect of the restoration of colonial Havana International

Farewell to Eusebio Leal, architect of the restoration of Old Havana and a key player in saving the Historic Center of one of the most beautiful capitals in America, was as he would have liked. His ashes were exhibited on Thursday in the majestic Hall of the Lost Steps in the National Chapter, a jewel of Cuban neoclassical eclecticism, to which he dedicated the last years of his life to rehabilitation. He died on July 31, at the age of 77, his funeral – postponed until now due to the Covid-19 pandemic – included the popular tribute in the Capitol, one of his great restoration works, where thousands of people marched, people on down, authorities, residents of Old Havana and also a large part of the team that worked side by side with him in the City Historic Bureau, architects, painters, designers, masons, carpenters, publishers, engineers, blacksmiths, plaster teachers and the stained glass windows, among others, that came to say their last goodbyes to their teacher and friend, the person everyone simply called Eusebio.

There were many tears in the Chapter, because everyone loved Eusebio. And the few who did not want him respected him for his work, which allowed the rescue and rehabilitation of hundreds of buildings, palaces, parks, squares, theaters and boulevards in the colonial city, saving him from disaster. The Havana historian was a man of religious beliefs and wanted his remains to rest next to his mother in a small garden behind the minor basilica of the old San Francisco de Asís monastery, another emblem of the historic center rescued by Leal with help from part of Spanish cooperation in the 1990s, when the city fell apart due to the crisis of the special period. There, in a small tomb surrounded by flowers, in the heart of the colonial city, his ashes were laid in a private family ceremony.

It is impossible to calculate how much Havana and Cuban culture owe to Eusebio Leal. Although his official position was simply that of City Historian, he was much more than that, because since he arrived in Old Havana he has been dedicated to raising awareness. Without their vehemence and intelligence to add and obtain resources, from the state and foreign institutions, much of the architectural heritage of the old colonial city would probably have disappeared, which since 1982 has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Eusebio spoke with contagious passion about his city, to which he dedicated his whole life. Anyone who listened to him, whether they were kings, presidents, ambassadors, artists, potentials or the simplest people in the neighborhood, dedicated himself to the cause of saving the city. There were many who supported him with resources or in various ways in his rehabilitation effort, a work that he conceived as inextricably linked to social development, not simply meant to save buildings or markets.

“Preserving the tangible and intangible heritage of the city is important, but not as a task of mummifying the past. The Havana project and the mission we have is to give it life, for the city to be for those who live in it, that’s why the Historian’s Office has created schools, health centers and houses in the Historic Center, it’s the only way not to it becomes an old town or a tourist center, “Leal told EL PAIS in one of his last interviews, already ill but at the foot of the canyon in his office.

Born on September 11, 1942 in Havana, of very humble origins, his training was self-taught. As a child, he dropped out of school to help his mother and only after the triumph of the revolution did he manage to finish high school and study history at the University of Havana. A disciple of Emilio Roig de Leushenring, whom he succeeded as historian of the city, he played an important role in the restoration of the old Palace of the Captains General, the first major rehabilitation work undertaken in the city, completed in 1979.

From 1981 he began to direct the restoration works of the Historic Center of Havana. Few funds were then allocated to this effort, but Leal mitigated the imponderables with his will and enthusiasm, carrying out in the following years the rehabilitation of the fortress of San Carlos de La Cabaña and the Castillo de los Tres Reyes de El Morro.

Since then, he has dedicated himself to raising awareness at the height of the importance of saving the rich heritage of the Historic Center and the colonial city and has fought to obtain the necessary resources to finance this gigantic work. In 1993, when the collapse of the socialist camp left the country without resources, Leal convinced the then Cuban president, Fidel Castro, of the need to offer considerable margins of autonomy to Old Havana and to create his own business system to self-finance. restoration. The question was to save Havana at all costs, Leal defended.

In almost three decades, the city’s historian’s office has restored hundreds of buildings of great heritage value – such as the Palacio del Segundo Cabo, Castillo de la Fuerza, Centro Gallego or Capitol – and public spaces that are the heart of the city today, such as Plaza de Armas , Plaza de la Catedral, Plaza de San Francisco or Plaza Vieja, with the streets that connect them, Mercaderes, Oficios, Obispo, today full of life and private business.

The restoration work in Old Havana has won numerous international awards and has been used as an example and model of a sustainable project with a high technical level. This model has been transformed over time, because if at first the state bears the full burden of rehabilitation, Leal has gradually given higher margins to the private sector so that it can finance the restoration of houses and buildings to start businesses. , focusing the office on the rehabilitation of public spaces and ensuring compliance with standards, so that everything is done in accordance with the protection of heritage. Old Havana with Eusebio was synonymous with dynamism and entrepreneurship.