Cuba Guide
Trinidad and Sancti Spíritus
Iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad
Address: Plaza Mayor, Simón Bolívar
Opening time: The best time to visit the church is from Mon to Sat 11am–12.30pm, when there is no Mass
The city's main church is the Iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad (also known as the Parroquial Mayor). Though there has been a church on this site since 1620, the original building was destroyed in a storm that swept through town in 1812. The structure now standing was officially finished in 1892, the first brick having been laid in 1817, but much of what you'll see inside dates from the twentieth century.
Beyond its unremarkable facade, there's plenty to look at within the church's three naves. Amongst the pictures and paintings, it's the disproportionate number of altars that grabs most people's attention. The majority were created by Amadeo Fiogere, a Dominican friar assigned to the church in 1912, who set about livening up the interior, drawing on his own personal fortune to donate many of the images on display today. Whatever you ultimately think about the fourteen wooden altars here, there's a distinct mix of elaborate artificiality and genuinely impressive craftsmanship that won't fail to make you stop and stare. This is especially true of the main one in the central nave, a mass of pointed spires and detailed etchings, looking like a miniature facade of a Gothic cathedral.