On September 8, 1675, the first Mass was blessed and celebrated in a hermitage dedicated to the Marian advocation of Our Lady of Monserrat. It was located approximately in the environment where today there is the plazuela or park of Albear.
When the wall was built, the hermitage was left in the extramural part and moved in the same location for the intramural part for safety reasons. It was this hermitage that gave its name to the well-known street of Monserrate and to the door of the wall that was built on the site.
On January 11, 1837, then-Captain General Tacón authorized the demolishing of the hermitage of Our Lady of Monserrat and moving it to Galiano Street in the walls, where it has remained to this day, but the street continued to be called Monserrate at that time.
In 1918, by agreement 390 of October 20, the City Council determined to give it the official name of Avenida de Belgium.
As almost always happens in these cases, the population of Havana continued to call it by its primeval name of Monserrate. This is another case of a Havana street that bears a name linked to a Catholic Church. The hermitage has been nestled since December 25, 1843 in another location.
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