El Capitolio, formally the National Capitol of Cuba, stands in Centro Habana, Havana, built between 1926 and 1929 under the architect Eugenio Rayneri Piedra for the government of President Gerardo Machado, with the American firm Purdy and Henderson overseeing a construction effort that employed more than 5,000 workers. Built as the seat of Cuba's Congress, with separate semicircular chambers for its Senate and Chamber of Deputies, the building now houses the National Assembly of People's Power. The building measures 207 meters long and 91 meters wide, its dome rising about 92 meters, the tallest structure in Havana until 1956, above a 55-step entrance staircase flanked by 6.5-meter statues representing Labor and Virtue, and a portico 36 meters wide carried on twelve 14-meter Ionic granite columns. Inside stands the Statue of the Republic by Angelo Zanelli, a 15-meter, 49-ton bronze figure covered in gold leaf, said to be the third largest indoor statue in the world.
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