SAN CRISTOFORO DELL'AVANA, ARCHDIOCESE of. - Known simply by the name of Havana (La Habana), capital Cuba (v.) in the Antilles.
It has an area of 8,220 sq. km., with a population of 1,235,939 inhabitants, of whom 1,200,000 are Catholics, distributed among 63 parishes, served by 79 diocesan and 194 regular priests; it has a seminary, 44 male and 80 female communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 351).
The diocese was created by Pius VI on 10 Sept. 1787 through the division of the diocese of Santiago de Cuba. It then comprised the present provinces of Habana, Pinar del Rio, Matanzas, and S. Clara, together with Florida and Louisiana. Subsequently, in 1796, the diocese of New Orleans was erected; in 1903 the dioceses of Pinar del Rio and Cienfuegos were separated from II. Pius XI, by the apostolic constitution Inter praecipuas of 6 Jan. 1925, raised it to metropolitan status, assigning to it as suffragans the dioceses of Matanzas and Pinar del Rio. Pius XII created the present archbishop, Emanuele Arteaga y Betancourt, cardinal (18 Feb. 1946).
The Cathedral, built around the middle of the eighteenth century, displays the characteristic form of the Spanish colonial period, from whose nation Cuba separated in 1898. The façade is beautiful, and still more beautiful are the two lateral towers detached from the building.