[2] Archived 2021-11-07 at the Wayback Machine The southern boundary of this area were the railroad tracks that lead to the Paradero de Villanueva and what eventually became Calle Zanja.

With the passage of time, the San Lazaro cove was filled and the tower was included in a Republican-era park named after Major General Antonio Maceo.

[6] Located in the Parque Antonio Maceo at Malecón and Calle Marina in present-day central Havana is the Torreón de San Lázaro, a watchtower built-in 1665 by the engineer Marcos Lucio.

Towards 1824, General Francisco Dionisio Vives took it out of its financial quagmire by providing a tax on lottery tickets and another on the cockfights that took place in the trenches of the Castillo de la Fuerza.

In 1914, President Mario García Menocal converted La Casa de Beneficencia into a state institution and provided it, without forgoing donations and popular collections, with a budget for maintenance.

"[10] However, a photograph published in Havana in January 1959 showing Castro's son Fidelito riding on top of a tank contradicts this statement as the Beneficiensa building can be seen on the left background of the photo.

The chaplain of the church, presbyter Juan Pérez de Silva, and Dr. Francisco Teneza in view of the deplorable conditions of the leprosy patients sought the help of the King of Spain Felipe V.[citation needed] The Real Hospital de San Lázaro was built near the Juan Guillén Cove in 1781 and the church inside a two-story courtyard which became a pilgrimage frequented by those suffering from leprosy and followers of San Lázaro or Babalú Ayé seeking spiritual solace.

It was the custom of the people of Havana to bury the dead in a crypt inside of the churches, placing them according to their social rank and prices paid for the vault.

The cemetery and the relocation of the corpses from the various churches were carried out by three black slaves with carts pulled by horses and financed with Bishop of Espada y Landa's own wealth.

[14] Cirilo Villaverde—author of a short story about the Hill of Taganana and of the novel Cecilia Valdés—writes on a visit to Casa de Dementes de San Dionisio: "The entrance door, is precisely in the middle, under the porch, on the sides of which open four windows with strong iron bars, which give light and air to other rooms occupied by the doctor, the house butler, and two soldiers and a corporal, who do not stand guard but are of respect, in case of need.

Diario de la Marina (27 July 1947) published what Conde San Juan de Jaruco in the 19th century wrote: "The House (for the) Insane of San Dionisio was one of the great works of charity that realized in Havana, at the expense of a voluntary subscription, the lieutenant general don Francisco Dionisio Vives y Planes, captain general and governor of the Island of Cuba.

Jai alai (/ˈhaɪ.əlaɪ/: [ˈxai aˈlai]) is normally played with a ball that is bounced off of the floor and three walls accelerated to high speeds with a wicker hand-held device called a (Cesta).

The 1958 race is best remembered as the backdrop to the kidnapping of Formula One World Champion driver Juan Manuel Fangio by anti-government rebels linked to the 26th of July Movement.

Moss, driving a Maserati Birdcage for privateer team Camoradi, had a comfortable victory over NART run Ferrari 250 TR59 driven by Pedro Rodríguez with Masten Gregory third in a Porsche 718.

[27] Arrested at the age of 16, José Martí was sentenced to six years of imprisonment of hard labor in the San Lazaro Quarry in the western part of the Barrio, where he was sent to cut coral rock.

[28] On April 5, 1870, José Martí was confined to the quarries of San Lázaro, sentenced to forced labor for multiple reasons which included crimes of infidelity.

He met Nicolás del Castillo and Lino Figueredo, and his experiences under confinement served as material for the book 'The Political Prison in Cuba'.

[29] In this booklet, José Martí tells in a masterly way the bitter experience lived in the quarries of San Lazaro during the period in which he was imprisoned, forced to work in subhuman conditions.

Martí was not looking for literary novelty; he conceived it as a document of indignant accusation, not only for physical abuse but for the mistreatment of morals and the human condition; but that does not stop being an artistic piece.

[31] The 1916 statue of General Antonio Maceo by the Italian sculptor Doménico Boni and subsequent park, La Casa de Beneficencia, the hotel Manhattan on Calle Belascoáin, by the U.S. Engineering firm of Purdy and Henderson, and the Hotel Vista Alegre also at the beginning of Calle Belascoáin, anchored a geographically important corner close to the sea of the large expanse of land known as El Barrio San Lazaro and within it and immediately to the north was the Caleta de San Lazaro.

[34] Buildings in the Barrio San Lazaro that were important to the early development of the city were the Hospital de San Dionisio for the mentally insane, the Cementerio General known as the Campo Santo and more commonly referred to as the Espada Cemetery was the precursor to the Colon Cemetery, and a room for the treatment of the mentally ill located on the side of the Real Casa de Beneficencia on Calle Belascoáin.

In 1916 the monument was placed but the park was not built, many voices were raised in a protest demanding that a greater tribute be paid to the figure of Antonio Maceo.

The Casa de Beneficencia eventually reached from Calles San Lazaro and Belascoáin to Marquez Gonzalez and Virtudes where the jai alai fronton was located.

The Battery of Santa Clara artillery had 20 pieces of large caliber, long-range Ordóñez guns some of which can still be seen today in the gardens of the Hotel Nacional.

[citation needed] The first battery on this site was built between 1797 and 1799 and was named for Juan Procopio Bassecourt y Bryas, Count of Santa Clara, the Spanish governor of Cuba from 1796 to 1799.

Following the Spanish–American War, US troops were billeted there and later a barracks was constructed, which was torn down in 1928 or 1929 to provide a site for the hotel.The Santa Clara Battery was built on top of a hill that was home to one of the most historic caves on the island.

The hill of Taganana, located in the coastal outcrop of Punta Brava near the cove of San Lázaro took its name from a cavern in the Canary Islands where the princess Guanche Cathaysa took refuge.

[40] In Cuba, a parallel legend states that one of the caves under the Taganana hill served as a shelter for a Cuban Indian girl of the same name who fled from her Spanish persecutors.

[9] The Cuban novelist Cirilo Villaverde immortalized Guanche Cathaysa in his literary work, La Cueva de Taganana.

Arnoldo Varona writes: The hill of Taganana, as it is known, is located in the coastal outcrop of Punta Brava, almost to the extreme of the cove of San Lázaro, and was a habitual place of pirate landings, that took its name of another cavern in the island Canaria of Tenerife where the princess Guanche Cathaysa took refuge when she escaped after she was captured and sold by the Castilians as a slave in 1494.