[:es]Havana is Seething with People Admiring its 498 Years[:]

Among the new attractions is the Visitors Center, a service of the San Cristobal Travel Agency open to the promotion and significance of the historic, cultural and natural heritage of the country’s capital.

The progress of works there point to November 16, when the anniversary is due, that office will be ready.

The Budget Unit of Investments (BUI) and its head in the área, Ademar Ramirez, work intensely together with Puerto Carenas company to have everything ready.

Joint Director of the Historian’s Office of the City of Havana, Perla Rosales, reported on the Gate of Entrance to the Historic Center and the expansion of the perimetral area of the Templete.

Norma Trujillo, executive of the BUI, mentioned the case of the building inaugurated in the first half of the 19th Century, is worked on for several months to restore its original dimensions to the neoclassic entrance, modified after 1851.

He said the archaeological works led by the group of Puerto Carenas revealed the original fundaments of the building laron los cimientos originales del edificio, and from there they designed the present work.

In the Cagigal column, for instance, erected in 1754, the space surrounding it belongs to that place, where the Virgin of Pilar was restored in all its attributes.

In parallel, they are working in the frescoes of Juan Bautista Vermay that have El Templete as their home.

As for the so-called Door of O’Reilly, monumental access to the street of the same name in times of Republican Havana, the works advance quite rapidly.

Authorities said that some ornamental elements would be pending, as two cannons on each side of the entrance and the ironwork that joins the structure, on one side with the buildings of Port Pilots.

All this responds to El Templete, where the first mass was said on November 16, 1519.

The list is long, including the recovery of the Castle of La Punta, affected by recent hurricane Irma, the new siting of the statue of Spanish King Carlos III.

Besides the novelty list, the priority of Eusebio Leal, City Historian are social works such as the ending of 70 houses and 20 new home son Muralla and Compostela streets.

Aristocratic houses, restorations, works on the Paranymph and the Hall of Lost Steps in Havana’s Capitol, among many historic protection works, are part of the tasks to celebrate the city’s 498 years, extremely cosmopolitan and colorful, recalled experts.