Cuba Guide
Cienfuegos and Villa Clara
Teatro La Caridad
Address: Parque Vidal 
42/20-5548
Opening time: Tues– Sun 8am–5pm
Price: $1CUC, $1CUC extra to take photos
A few doors down on the same northwestern side of the square is the Teatro La Caridad, with a fabulous, ornate interior, sold short by the building's relatively sober exterior. It was built in 1885 with money donated by Marta Abreu Estevez, a bronze statue of whom stands on the opposite side of the square. Estevez was a civic-minded nineteenth-century native of Santa Clara with an inherited fortune of more than four million pesos. As part of her wider quest to help the poor and contribute to the city's civil, cultural and academic institutions, a portion of the box office receipts were set aside to improve living conditions for the impoverished, thus spawning the theatre's name ("Charity"). Restored for a second time in the early 1980s, the theatre is in fantastic condition, with a semicircular three-tiered balcony enveloping the central seating area and a stunning painted ceiling. Three central angelic figures, representing Genius, History and Fame, are stationed in the clouds above a map of Cuba, while around the outside are painted portraits of eight Spanish playwrights. The creation of Camilo Salaya, who was also responsible for the interior decoration of the Teatro Tomás Terryin Cienfuegos, this huge fresco is the theatre's crowning glory. You can get closer to it on a twenty-minute guided tour in English, which takes you up into the balcony.