Five sculptures located in the Plaza de la Marqueta in the city of Holguín show visible signs of structural deterioration and could collapse if they do not receive urgent restoration, a local content creator recently reported in a video shared on social media.
During the tour of one of the city's most well-known squares, the author of the video showed fractures, detachments, and visible damage on several of the sculptural figures installed in the area.
"One has already collapsed. And if we don't do something for these five, the same thing will happen to them," he warned at the beginning of the recording.
Among the affected works, he mentioned the sculpture known as “The Lord of the Pillory,” which has a crack in the neck; “The Sitting Man,” with visible fractures; and “The Man with the Sack,” which has already lost one of its arms.
It also noted the advanced deterioration of the figure of "The Lady with the Purse" and "The Gentleman with the Stool," whose structure shows cracks in the neck and damage to other parts of the piece.
The complainant attributed the deterioration to a lack of regular maintenance and social misconduct, including people sitting on the sculptures to take photographs.
"No matter how excellent the materials used to create these works are, they need to be regularly maintained," he stated.
The publication generated numerous reactions among residents of Holguín, who criticized the lack of preservation of urban heritage and questioned the indifference of local authorities.
Some users recalled that several sculptures represent real individuals linked to the popular history of the city.
"Each statue is a story of Holguín," wrote Arnaldo Morales, while other comments denounced that "the indifference is overwhelming" and that those responsible "are sitting behind a desk and don’t care at all."
There were also criticisms aimed at the local regime's investment priorities. “Ah, but a lot of material wasted on kiosks,” commented an internet user, referring to the contrast between the neglect of cultural heritage and other projects promoted by the authorities.
"And so, every day we lose the sense of preserving our city. Most of those establishments in the Plaza are rented from the State, and they receive quite a bit of money for that, so they must maintain and restore those surrounding sites," pointed out Katia Oduardo Grimal.
Neighbors and social media users called for urgent restorations to prevent the permanent loss of the sculptures in a city where the deterioration of public spaces, monuments, and historical buildings has become increasingly apparent amid the country's economic crisis.
The case of Plaza de la Marqueta fits into a pattern of heritage neglect that has intensified in Holguín. In the middle of the month, the sculpture Woman with Parasol collapsed in the pedestrian boulevard on Libertad Street, after weeks of citizen alerts that were ignored by the authorities, and it had to be moved to the sculptor's house for safekeeping.
Days before, the sword of the statue of Major General Julio Grave de Peralta was stolen for at least the third time from Parque de las Flores, and on May 20, part of the roof of the Ismaelillo theater, formerly the Victoria cinema, was reported to have collapsed.
The Mercado Plaza, or La Marqueta, is located in the heart of the Cuban City of Parks. It was built in 1829 and underwent major restoration between 2014 and 2017 to transform it into a cultural and tourist complex with over 30 commercial stands. However, it now faces the risk of losing the very features that gave it its distinctive character.
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