Havana celebrates its 504th anniversary

Havana, the capital of Cuba, is celebrating on Thursday, its 504th foundation anniversary, plunged into the restoration of several centers and a wide range of activities.

Office of the Historian of the City of Havana (OHCH) organized the traditional ceremony at El Templete, the foundation site of the former village of San Cristóbal de La Habana (Havana).

This Thursday, El Templete garden will open to the public from 19:00 hours, local time. At that site, Havana residents, Cubans, and foreign visitors walk three times around the trunk of the Ceiba tree, asking for good luck.

The traditional ceremony could not be held on Wednesday evening because the weather conditions did not allow it.

According to historical accounts, the founding mass was celebrated on November 16, 1519, and the first “cabildo” (town council), a normative assembly to direct and administer the city, took place.

Havana won the title of Wonder City of the Modern World in 2016. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the oldest district of Cuba’s capital and its fortress system a World Heritage Site in 1982.