Church of Jesus, Catholic church in Miramar district, Havana, Cuba
Iglesia de Jesús de Miramar is Cuba's second largest church, at Quinta Avenida on the corner of Calle 82. Architects Eugenio Cosculluela and Guido Sutter designed it in a Neo-Romanesque-Byzantine style, begun in 1948 and inaugurated on 28 May 1953. Inside, 14 large murals hold more than 266 figures.
Construction began in 1948 to plans by the architects Eugenio Cosculluela (1893–1978) and Guido Sutter, and the church was inaugurated on May 28, 1953. The murals by Cesáreo Marciano Hombrados y de Onativia followed between 1952 and 1959, and the 5,000-pipe organ was inaugurated on November 22, 1956.
The 14 murals painted by Cesáreo Marciano Hombrados y de Onativia between 1952 and 1959 hold more than 266 figures; his wife, Sara Margarita Fernández y López, posed for the Virgin Mary. As Carlos Eire notes in Waiting for Snow in Havana, many of those who paid for the murals had themselves painted into the crowd scenes, so local benefactors appear among the biblical figures.
The church stands at Quinta Avenida on the corner of Calle 82 in Miramar, in the Archdiocese of San Cristóbal de La Habana. The Lourdes grotto copy by Max Borges Jr. sits in the gardens and was inaugurated on 13 May 1958. Look up at the organ loft to see the horseshoe console of the Kilgen theatre organ taken from the Cine Encanto.
The organ has 5,000 pipes and was inaugurated on 22 November 1956; parts came from Spain and the rest was built inside the church by Guillermo de Aizpuru Egiguren. A Kilgen theatre organ from Havana's Cine Encanto was also absorbed, its horseshoe-shaped console expanded and incorporated.
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