Cuba Guide
Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey
La Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Merced
Address: One block west of Maceo
Opening time: Mon 3.30–6pm, Tues– Sat 9.30–11.30am & 3.30–6pm
La Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Merced is Camagüey's most impressive building. A recent slick of paint has taken the edge off its whimsical appeal, though the romance of its whispered origins endures undiminished. The story goes that one day in the seventeenth century, when the plaza was still allegedly submerged beneath a lake, the townsfolk heard shouts and screams from the thickets on the banks. Terrified to approach, they kept watch from a distance over several days until, to their amazement, a shimmering white church emerged from the water. Beckoning from the portal was a priest with a cross clasped in his hand: the Merced church had arrived. A more prosaic history tells that the church was built as a convent in 1747, and the rooms to the left of the chapel, set around a central patio, still serve as such today. Inside the grounds, shadows of mango leaves dapple the patio and large, well-kept tinajones perch on the cloisters. Art Deco frescoes swirl across the corridor ceiling in muted shades of grey and yellow, while doors open onto classrooms, reading rooms and an ample library where you can browse through weighty religious tomes.
The adjoining church is a confection of styles. Built on the side of the seventeenth-century chapel, the first church was constructed in 1748, rebuilt a hundred years later, and again between 1906 and 1909 following a fire that destroyed the altar. Now it boasts a richly ornate neo-Gothic wood and gilt altar imported from Spain, a contrast to the delicate eighteenth-century Baroque balconies swooping above. The most intriguing item, however, is the Santo Sepulcro, an ornate silver coffin, thickly coated with intertwined hand-beaten bells and flowers, made in 1762 from 25,000 molten silver coins by Mexican silversmith Juan de Benítez, and commissioned by an ill-fated merchant.