Plaza del Cristo
Shaded colonial square around a mariners' church, holding a monument to a wrongfully executed poet.
This guide to the Plaza del Cristo in Havana centers on a bronze monument beside the fountain, to the poet Gabriel de la Concepcion Valdes, known by his pen name Placido. Free, mixed race, and one of the most celebrated poets of his generation, he was accused in 1844 of leading a slave uprising that Spanish authorities called the Conspiracy of the Ladder, built on confessions extracted under torture. Historians still argue whether the plot was ever real, even as thousands of free and enslaved Black Cubans were swept into the arrests. Behind the monument, the square's church still keeps its twin hexagonal towers, once watched by sailors praying for safe voyages.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.