A video published on Facebook by the page Crónicas de mi Isla II about the current state of the Chapel of the Servants of Mary, in the Garrido neighborhood of Camagüey, sparked a wave of nostalgia and outrage among Cubans both inside and outside the island.
The comments on the post mix childhood memories with anger over what many describe as a theft by the regime.
The temple was constructed between 1926 and 1947, featuring an architecture influenced by the neo-Gothic style and a structural design that astonished engineers and architects of the time. It utilized Catalan vaulting and a modernist dome—the only one of its kind in the interior of the country—with visible Gothic ribs on the inside but a flat rooftop appearance on the outside.
Its façade featured a mural of the Virgin of Health in tiles, and its interior was decorated with floral sgraffito and wavy iron grilles.
The chapel belonged to the congregation of the Servants of Mary Ministers to the Sick, an order dedicated to the free care of the sick at home and in hospitals, especially at night.
The Order of the Servants of Mary in Cuba
The Servants of Mary Ministers to the Sick arrived in Cuba on March 8, 1875, and combined their service mission with a prominent educational effort.
Her first school operated in Santiago de Cuba from 1876 to 1879, until the cholera epidemic forced the nuns to focus on healthcare.
In 1890, they took over the leadership of the Llaca College in Cárdenas, where for a decade they provided education to girls despite financial difficulties, conflicts with church authorities, and threats of eviction.
In 1893, they established a home in El Carmelo, Havana, originally conceived as a place of rest but later transformed into a school for children without access to education. They subsequently expanded their presence to Camagüey, Cienfuegos, Matanzas, and Holguín.
In Camagüey, the nuns lived in the very building of the Garrido neighborhood. In 1961, the regime intervened in the property and expelled the congregation, closing the six houses operating throughout the island.
"The church was intervened, expropriated by the government. Its owners, the Servants of Mary, were expelled from the country," wrote one of the commentators.
Another was more direct: "With all due respect, the convent was not abandoned, nor did it simply stop functioning. It was taken away. The chapel was stolen by the system when it decided to expel its caretakers, who dedicate their nights to taking care of the sick."
After the expropriation, the building was transformed into a wrestling and judo gym, a use it maintained for decades, leaving a lasting impact on the memory of several generations of Cubans.
From Catholic chapel to combat sports gym
Dozens of comments on the post recall the ropes that reached the ceiling, the mattresses on the floor, and the coaches from those years.
"The Chapel, my wrestling training place with so many beautiful memories and excellent teammates and coaches," wrote one person. In 1975, according to another account, the building was still in good condition while serving that sports function.
However, there are those who hold onto older memories. “It was a beautiful church. I went to mass with my dad every Sunday, that would be around 1959. The stained glass windows were a marvel,” wrote a user, summing up in a few words what the temple meant to those who knew it in its glory.
The testimonies also recount an episode that circulates among the neighborhood residents: the communist government allegedly ordered the destruction of the Virgin of Health mural made of tiles on the facade, but those who attempted to do so suffered accidents that prevented the task from being completed. The mural, according to comments, remains visible to this day.
The deterioration of the chapel is not an isolated case. The neglect of architectural heritage in Camagüey also affects other emblematic sites in the city, and the chapel in the Garrido neighborhood is added to a list of ruins that reflect decades of institutional neglect.
The congregation of the Servants of Mary returned to Cuba in the 1990s, but the chapel in the Garrido neighborhood remains under the control of the regime, unrestored and unused.
"It's abandoned and in ruins, like almost the entire country," summarized a commentator with bitter accuracy.
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