The July 14 parliamentary session of the Venezuelan National Assembly was held in a different location than usual: the Convention Center at La Carlota Airbase. Speaker Jorge Rodríguez explained that the Federal Legislative Palace suffered damages after the earthquakes on June 24, particularly at the golden dome over the main Elliptical room. “At the moment we are doing the appropriate repairs. However, we don’t have the essential security conditions for the National Assembly to gather at the Palace…” Until further notice, La Carlota will serve as a temporary plenary hall.

The Federal Legislative Palace (better known as the Capitolio) is one of the most distinctive historical buildings in downtown Caracas. It was built between 1872 and 1877 by order of then President Antonio Guzmán Blanco and it has served as the seat of our legislative branch ever since.

Its predecessor, the Palace of the Academies, was sadly damaged by the disaster as well.

It was originally built as a Franciscan convent in 1577 and then expanded two centuries later. Partially destroyed by the 1812 earthquake, it was rebuilt but used for other functions, like the former Chamber of Deputies. Here, the infamous 1848 storming of Congress took place.

The bell tower located at the top of the Palace of the Academies partially collapsed.

Later became the primary site of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) until the opening of Ciudad Universitaria in 1952, and today serves as the main seat of the six National Academies (Language, History, Political & Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Economics and Engineering).

After surviving similar seismic events in 1900 and 1967, the building suffered some visible damages on June 24, as the bell tower located at the top of the Palace partially collapsed.

The devastation of residential buildings has dominated coverage of the earthquakes, leaving historical structures largely in the background. Even so, concerns over the condition of churches in Caracas have kept the issue in the public eye.

According to the Caracas Archdiocese, at least 25 of the city’s approximately 100 churches sustained damage in the disaster. The Basilica of Saint Theresa has raised the greatest concern after inspectors issued it a red tag, indicating that the building is currently unsafe for occupancy. 

Francisco Garcés, who Delcy Rodríguez recently named Chairman of the Presidential Commission for the Evaluation of Infrastructure Habitability, and Enzo Betancourt, head of the Colegio de Ingenieros de Venezuela (College of Engineers) told the press that the red tag doesn’t necessarily mean a structure will be immediately demolished.

Parish priest Armelim de Sousa spoke with El Pitazo. He explained that the Basilica was inspected three times and that there have been some contradictions between the three: the first two were made by the Caracas Archdiocese’s Vicar General Neptali Balza (also a civil engineer) and by members of the Caracas Fire Department respectively. Those inspections found damages, but also considered that the church could still hold activities like regular mass.

The Caracas Cathedral also received a red label after being inspected, forcing it to suspend inside activities indefinitely.

The third one, by people of domestic seismic authority Funvisis (and made in De Sousa’s absence) disagreed. However, all three inspections agreed no demolition was needed. As daily mass is now held outside the Basilica’s premises, the image of the Nazarene of Saint Paul guarded there (which remains the center of an important tradition celebrated each Holy Week) is safe and sound.

The Caracas Cathedral also received a red label after being inspected, forcing it to suspend inside activities indefinitely. Its parish priest, Juan Carlos Silva explained its current condition: “There are several damages in the Cathedral’s tower… even the facade, the pinnacles, some arcs and vaults, the Mujedar roof of the Saint Peter Chapel… (all) suffered considerable damage. Therefore, at this time internal mass is not convenient for safety…”

Other churches in Caracas recently inspected are the Divine Shepherd Church in La Pastora, the Church of Our Lady of the Candelaria in La Candelaria and the Saint Bernandino of Siena Church in San Bernardino, quoting an Efecto Cocuyo report by Reynaldo Mozo Zambrano.

Culture-related sites in Caracas and La Guaira have been reviewed by the Culture Ministry’s Institute for Cultural Heritage. In Caracas they didn’t find any major issues. Things were different in La Guaira: both the El Vigía Fort and the replica of El Castillete, the former home of famous Venezuelan painter Armando Reverón suffered minor damages. However,  the Pablo Castellanos School of Music in Macuto  was mostly destroyed. The well-known historical building of La Guaira, Casa Guipuzcoana, escaped major damage (unlike during the January 3 US military strikes in Caracas).

UCV rector Víctor Rago ruled out any severe or irreparable damage in the Caracas University City.

Two of the three places in Venezuela included in UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites’ List (the third one is Canaima National Park) are in areas directly impacted by the earthquakes: one is UCV’s University City (Ciudad Universitaria) and the other is the Western city of Coro and its port (La Vela de Coro).

In the case of the former, UCV rector Víctor Rago ruled out any severe or irreparable damage in its premises. Curiously, it was there where the seismic event was broadcast live, during a baseball game at the University Stadium.

The historic center of both Coro and La Vela de Coro were spared of any major destruction. The rehabilitation works of a dozen historical properties resumed recently. Coro and its Port have been in the World Heritage List since 1993 thanks to its uniqueness in architecture. They’ve also been included in the World Heritage in Danger list since 2005. In recent years, there were fears that its status would be lost because of the lack of preservation.

However, the east of Falcón state was not as lucky as its capital: the towns of Boca de Aroa and Tucacas, both located close to the epicenter, experienced substantial destruction and many in the areas lost their homes. At least 12 people died in Falcón as a consequence of the disaster. 

The official priority at the time is logically the rebuilding of the areas devastated by the tragedy and providing all those displaced from their homes a place to start again. The same can be said about cities and towns destroyed so life can return to some level of normality there. The hope is that those historical constructions which remained standing after the earthquakes can be restored so they can still be tangible parts of our long history. 

To finish, I would like to quote this from Alicia Ponte-Sucre, the current head of the Venezuelan Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences (ACFIMAN). She wrote about the damaged bell tower at the Palace of the Academies. I think her words represent what the commitment to rebuild from what’s left after the disaster should be: that those structures were not just that, they had meaning and purpose and from that, they can be revitalized once again.

“It is said that bells are the first symbol of a settlement and the last one to disappear. The bell of the Palace of the Academies refuses to disappear. It’s still there, shaky, curled up just like the survivors of this tragedy that invade us, as a symbol that binds together moral values, spiritual signs, human resources, communication capacity and language keys that are almost human; that constitute the mirror in which we reflect ourselves to understand how cryptic life can be and the need to convene us to keep on building a better country…”