Bishop Morell Times
The return of his convalescence the painter had to be satisfied with overseeing completion of the painting by his trainees, because conditions in that their lower extremities had been prevented assert itself to continue the work. The temple forms a rectangle of 34 x 35 meters, divided internally by thick pillars into three naves and eight side chapels. The floor is of black and white marble tiles. Its chapels include the very old Santa Maria of the Loreto, consecrated by the Bishop Morell de Santa Cruz in 1755, i.e. long before the transformation of the Oratory of the Jesuits in the Cathedral. Between 1946 and 1949 the Cathedral was subject to a vast process of transformation, or rather, renovation, work of the architect Cristobal Martinez Marquez.
It was an initiative of Manuel Arteaga Betancourt, Palace of Havana. And for her, the Republican Government of the island contributed the sum of 250 000 pesos. The reconstruction was a real success thanks to her temple won much in light, ventilation, safety, beauty and above all grandeur. The building and its stylistic features are much spoken throughout times, famous writers, art critics and renowned architects, have left many glowing comments about the beauty of the building that is home to the Cathedral of Havana. The writer Alejo Carpentier was said to the facade of the Cathedral music converted into stone. Other as Jose Lezama Lima claimed that this facade, with its curves, remedaba marine wave.
Emilio Roig de Leushering, who was a historian of the city of Havana, was of the opinion that the Cathedral, the convent of St. Francis of Assisi, Paula, of la Merced Church and also of the Angel, are the colonial temples that deserved to retain at all times as representative monuments Havana. In his view, to the a la Catedral Cathedral it favored the very interesting aspect and typically colonial square front that sits, and purely habaneros which are erected around the square and buildings that seem to make a permanent honor guard to the old temple.