• Submitted by: lena campos
• Pinar del Río
• 09 / 01 / 2012

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Affected by two hurricanes, the Church of the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Holy Jesus Heart), a relic of Viñales, shows today its original appearance, thanks to the work of a team of Cuban restorers.

The church was built between 1880 and 1883 and suffered the devastating battering of the hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008.

The temple, built in the Viñales Valley, Cultural Landscape of the Humanity, shows today its facade and inner walls totally renovated, with the advantage that in the restoration Works were respected the initials patterns, confirmed to Prensa Latina engineer Nidia Cabrera, director of the Provincial Monument Office.

She explained that the Works included the restitution of the wooden cover, protected by Cuban traditional tiles (made out of cooked clay), as was used some centuries ago.

Another step – indicated – to safeguard the building was the recovery of the original floor and the rehabilitation of the images and decorative elements.
Previously renovated in 1989, the Church of the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús stands in the centre of the town, where there are several colonial type houses, many of them partially rebuilt after the damages suffered by the two hurricanes.

Both the Viñales Valley, famous for its Jurassic mountains, and the town nearby, were included in the list of the World Patrimony in 1999.

Distinguished by the harmony among men and its environment, the area preserve agricultural and cultural traditions, such as the growing of tobacco leaves, the farmer´s traditional parties (guateques) and the hundred years old practices of pottery and basketwork, among other customs.

Gustav and Ike caused considerable damages to the buildings of the area – 160 kilometers east of Havana – but the inhabitants managed to erase a good part of the marks left by the hurricanes in that area, taking into account the preservation of the values that made them unique, indicated Cabrera.

To help the rescue of that area, the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), gave a fund of 75 thousand USD as an emergency help.

Source: Cubarte