The Ariete

    Star InactiveStar InactiveStar InactiveStar InactiveStar Inactive
     
    Rating:
    ( 0 Rating )
    Pin It

     ariete

    Timely building of eclecticism in Ciego de Ávila, located on Joaquín de Agüero street and Simón Reyes corner was built in 1922, for hotel purposes and considered one of the best in its time.

    On February 6, 1920, Mr. Luis Gómez de la Torre, a Spaniard settled in Ciego de Ávila city, attended the notary Rafael Flores de Monte as manager of the "Collective Commercial Society Joaquín Gómez and Siblings." to carry out the work contract of the property whereby the Spanish Mr. Vicente Rossell and Palmer, settled in the city, acted as contractor. the work would be done with funds from the company. The project was executed by Don Pedro de Pastor, well-known engineer for his extensive work as a designer of the work of Júcaro-Morón Fortress Line in Weyler's version and other buildings such as the Spanish Colony. The term of execution of the work was agreed for seven months and the dead line was September 20, 1920 with a price of 60,000 in official currency.

    When Mr. Joaquín Gómez de la Torre died in 1920, the actions passed to his heirs (parents, siblings, children) and the pertinent procedure was made in 1923 by his brother Luis Gómez.

    In spite of the date established for the completion of the work, the inscription date MCXXII appears in one of the auctions of the building. This fact, together with a press release in the newspaper "The Region" on Tuesday, October 24, 1922, confirm that it was this year ehen the execution was completed.

    There were several services offered by the property and different owners, one of which was the merchant Domingo Alonso, who came from Regla and settled in this city, installing a cafeteria, restaurant and canteen called El Ariete.

    The bus travel agency called “La Flecha de Oro”, which was characterized by national Havana-Santiago trips, was also installed in this building. The transit through it was mandatory and coincided with lunch and food schedules, which benefited the business because of the diversity of customers it attracted.

    On its first floor, there were also located a barbershop called El Ariete, in addition to a consultation of a dentist and an imitation jewelry store, services that were favored by the location of the building.

    The property has a C-shaped floor reminiscent of Cuban colonial domestic architecture, solid exterior walls, large public corridors, powerful columns. On Simón Reyes Street, it had six doors that connected to the main hall of the restaurant. The vertex of the angle formed by the two facades is eight-angled, with a large access door to the living room.

    The second level, although developed in the same type of floor, it is a little wider than the lower one, since it occupies the space of the portals, with 18 rooms, seven with visuals towards the inner courtyard and the rest, facing the two streets that form the corner of the building.

    The access to the roof was through a spiral staircase that landed in a medium room giving way to the rest of the deck from where a considerable part of the city center can still be seen.

    The original façade, according to photos and testimonies of the time, had Simón Reyes Street with four carpanel arcades running into a wide portal that communicated with the interior of the restaurant-hall through three large doors and three windows running to the ground, the latter delimited by balustrades at an approximate height of 80cm. The arches rest on pilasters with chapiters of a recreated Tuscan. The contours of these arches are highlighted by a small blasting, approximately, of about 5cm. The contours are topped at its peaks by a bracket decorated with small moldings. In the space between one arch and another, a garland appears with a purely decorative purpose and reminiscent of the Renaissance oculos. A wider door occupies the lower part of the bent angle.

    In front of Joaquín de Agüero Street, the same motifs are repeated, other four arches identical to those described above, with seven access doors to different premises, three to the canteen and restaurant hall, two to the travel agency and two to the barbershop. After the fourth arch, the facade is extended with a half-point that indicates the access to the upper floor, then two other arches equal to the first mentioned, with four doors, two of them that served as access to the dentist's cabinet and others two to the imitation jewelry store.

    The eight-angled section presents a wide arch, which together with the door, framed the stained glass window. All the openings have lintels and the doors are made of iron in the form of a roller. The strut of this first level is slightly higher than that of the upper one; both struts are joined by a simple cornice subtly flown and staggered. All walls have a horizontal incisions.

    On the top floor with the front to Simón Reyes Street, there are four openings with semicircular arches that correspond to each of the rooms in their visual communication with the outside. Each of these openenings is limited by balustrades at the level of the facade with a exquisite French door. The midpoints formed by lucetas are topped with colored acrylics of geometric shapes which are simple and with vertical splice. Between each vain, there is a complex ornamental molding, similar to a coat of arms of the nobility.

    The facade of the access through Joaquín de Agüero Streetis identical to the one described above, except for the existence of three more arches, the fifth of them also limited by balustrades, but somewhat blown above the level of the facade. The eight-angled section has a wide opening with a carpanel arch, vertically sectioned, turning it into two balconies somewhat blown above the level of the facade. It ends in a frieze with successions of brackets that support the cornice, more blown than that of the lower level, also staggered and that concludes with a parapet that alternates the simple plain cloth with light balustrades. The eight-angled section presents a broken finish in the center of which is located a helical medallion that frames the center of architectural attraction of the building.