Camagüey (Spanish pronunciation: [kamaˈ(ɣ)wej]) is a city and municipality in central Cuba. It is the country's third-largest city, with more than 333,000 people living there. Camagüey is the capital of Camagüey Province.

The city was first established in 1514 by Spanish colonists as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe on the northern coast. In 1528, it was moved inland to the location of a Taino village called Camagüey. It was one of the seven original settlements (villas) founded by the Spanish in Cuba. After Henry Morgan destroyed the city in the 17th century, it was redesigned as a maze to make it harder for attackers to move through.

The symbol of Camagüey is the clay pot, or tinajón, used to collect and store rainwater. The city is also where Ignacio Agramonte (1841) was born. He was an important leader during the Ten Years' War against Spain. A monument created by Italian sculptor Salvatore Buemi was placed in the city's center in 1912. It was unveiled by Agramonte’s wife and includes an equestrian statue, bronze reliefs showing parts of Agramonte’s life, and a sculpture of a woman representing the motherland.

In July 2008, the old town of Camagüey was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This recognition was given because of its maze-like city layout, its important role in early Spanish colonization and farming, and its architecture that shows many different styles.

History

Camagüey was founded on February 2, 1514, as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe by Spanish colonists led by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar. The city was built near Nuevitas on Cuba’s northern coast and was one of seven original settlements (villas) established by the Spanish in Cuba. In 1528, the settlement was moved inland to the site of a Taíno village named Camagüey.

The new city had a complex layout with winding alleys, blind ends, and streets that led to squares of different sizes. One explanation suggests the design made the city easier to defend against attackers. Another version claims that having only one exit allowed residents to trap and stop pirates if they entered. However, some people believe the city’s layout developed without planning, as residents wanted to stay near their local churches (there are 15 churches in the city).

In the 1700s, the city was called Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe. Between 1747 and 1753, Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga, the captain governor of Puerto del Príncipe, repaired the city after damage from the War of Jenkins’ Ear. He also rebuilt the Church of La Merced.

After Cuba gained independence from Spain in 1898, the city and its surrounding province were renamed Camagüey. The name had been used earlier to refer to the region “El Camagüey,” which honored a local chief named Camagüebax. He ruled between the Tínima and Hatibonico rivers. The name was officially approved for the province created in 1878, which was designated a military region by the republic.

Geography

The municipality is situated on a plain in the center of its province. It shares borders with Vertientes, Florida, Esmeralda, Sierra de Cubitas, Minas, Sibanicú, and Jimaguayú.

Demographics

In 2022, the municipality of Camagüey had a population of 333,251. It covers an area of 1,106 square kilometers (427 square miles), and has a population density of 300 people per square kilometer (780 people per square mile).

Culture

The symbol of the city of Camagüey is the clay pot, or tinajón, which was used to collect rainwater for later use, keeping it fresh. These clay pots are found throughout the city, in many different sizes. Some are small enough to fit in a hand, while others are large enough for two people to stand inside. They are used as decorations or for practical purposes. A local legend says that drinking water from a tinajón means a person will stay in Camagüey forever ("Quien tome agua del tinajón, en Camagüey se queda"). This legend suggests that meeting a Camagüeyana girl might lead someone to fall in love and never leave. The main secondary education institutions in Camagüey are the University of Camagüey and the Instituto Pedagógico de Camagüey.

The Big Clay Jars, or Tinajones, were storage containers used to transport wine, oil, and grain in the city. The Spanish introduced them during the early modern period to solve the city's water shortage. They were placed under gutters to collect rainwater. The jars were slightly tapered at one end and half-buried in the ground to keep the water cool and fresh. Over time, the jars were made locally, and every home, whether inside or outside the city, used them. A family's wealth could be judged by the style and number of tinajones they owned. Historians and archaeologists confirm this. Originally, in Spain, these jars were used to store olive oil. When the Spanish brought the design to Camagüey, it became a traditional part of life. Residents decorated the jars creatively, making them a local symbol of the city.

Infrastructure

The old city layout looks like a real maze, with narrow and short streets that twist and turn in different directions. After Henry Morgan burned the city in the 17th century, the city was redesigned as a maze to make it harder for attackers to move around inside.

Camagüey is a colonial city with streets that resemble a maze. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The city has more than 30 Catholic churches, which show the city's colonial history. Some examples include:

• The Church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, a baroque church with two towers, completed in 1825.
• The Cathedral of Camagüey, which began as a chapel in 1530 and was completed in 1864.
• The Church of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, the most symbolic church in the city, built during the 18th century. In old photos, it was not painted, giving its façade and tower a rustic look. Today, it is painted yellow. Inside, there are baroque frescoes and a sacred font where the hero Ignacio Agramonte was baptized in 1841.
• The Church and Convent-Hospital San Juan de Dios, first mentioned in documents from 1687 and 1692. The church was founded in 1731 by Joseph Díaz Ponte, and construction began in 1736, finishing in 1755. The bishop officially recognized the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God at that time. The main altar shows the Holy Trinity as three human figures, a unique image in Cuba. A similar image exists in a colonial church in Lima, Peru.
• The Church of Santa Ana, mentioned in a donation deed from 1617, which notes a hermitage dedicated to Our Lady of Saint Anne.
• The Church of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad, which had a replica of the Our Lady of Charity del Cobre, a statue from the National Basilica Sanctuary del Cobre in Santiago de Cuba. This church was first replaced by a chapel and later became a parish in 1801. Its tower had a public clock from 1822 to 1825, which was moved to the Church of Las Mercedes.
• The Church del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, a neogothic church built between 1912 and 1919 on the site of the former Convent of San Francisco.
• Gran Hotel Camagüey, which opened in 1938.

Camagüey has an important railway station on the main Havana–Santiago line, connected to smaller lines. The station is located on central "Avenida Van Horne," at the corner of "Avenida Finlay." The city is crossed by the Carretera Central highway and has a beltway. The A1 motorway, which will connect Havana to Guantánamo, is under construction in the city area.

Camagüey has its own international airport, Ignacio Agramonte International Airport, located in the northeastern suburb. Most tourists traveling to or from the Santa Lucía Beach use this airport.

Climate

According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Camagüey has a tropical savanna climate, shortened to "Aw" on climate maps. Cuba is an area where tropical cyclones often occur, and it has been impacted many times, such as in 1932 during the 1932 Cuba hurricane. Afternoons are hot, and mornings are mild to warm all year. Rainfall is highest in June and lowest in February.

Political-administrative division

The city is currently divided into four districts:

• Joaquín de Agüero District
• Cándido González District
• Julio Antonio Mella District
• Ignacio Agramonte District

Sport

The local baseball club is called Toros de Camagüey, which is also known as Alfareros ("Potters"), and it plays its home games at the Estadio Cándido González. The association football club is named FC Camagüey, and it plays its home games at the Estadio Patricio Lumumba.

Education

The Pre-Universitario, also called the Vocational Pre-University Institute of Exact Sciences Máximo Gómez Báez, is the largest school of its type in Camagüey province. It is known as a "learning city" because it is very large. This school is similar to others in other parts of Cuba. Students often make close friends at the school, but being away from home for weeks can sometimes affect family relationships. Traditional values may also change as students grow older. To join the school, students must take an entrance exam after finishing grades 7 through 9. For the next three years, they receive detailed training to prepare for college.

In the United States, high school includes grades 9 through 12. In Cuba, grades 7 through 9 are called Secundaria (Secondary School), and grades 10 through 12 are called Pre-Universitario (Pre-University). Some important Secundarias in Camagüey include La Avellaneda, Torre Blanca, Javier de la Vega, Ana Betancourt de Mora, Ignacio Agramonte, and others. In Camagüey city, there are other high schools, as well as schools for athletes (ESPA and EIDE), for artists (The School of Art), and a Military High School called "Camilo Cienfuegos" (also known as "Camilitos," named after a hero of the Cuban Revolution).

The University of Camagüey, which offers programs in engineering, basic sciences, and humanities, is located in the city. There is also a separate university for medical education called the Carlos J Finlay University of Medical Science. Since 2016, the University of Camagüey has combined the Sports University and the Pedagogical Sciences University. It now has more than 12,000 students and 3,000 teachers.

Notable residents

Camagüey is the birthplace of professional boxer Luis Ortiz, who was born in 1979.

Camagüey is also the birthplace of Ignacio Agramonte, who was born in 1841. He was an important leader during the Ten Years' War against Spain, which lasted from 1868 to 1878. Agramonte helped write the first Cuban Constitution in 1869. Later, as a Major General, he created the Camagüey cavalry corps, a strong military group that caused the Spanish to retreat. He died in battle on May 11, 1873. Because the Spanish feared rebels might attack the city to recover his body, his body was burned there. A cavalry regiment during the Cuban War of Independence was named after him. This regiment was established by Lope Recio Loynaz, who became the first Governor of the Province of Camagüey during the Republic of Cuba.

A statue of Ignacio Agramonte’s horse is displayed in a park named after him. The statue was placed there in 1911 and revealed by his wife, Amalia Simoni.

Visual artists from Camagüey include José Iraola, a painter born on September 19, 1961; sculptor Roberto Estopiñán, born in 1921; and artist Juan Boza, born in 1941.

Poets and writers from Camagüey include Brígida Agüero y Agüero (1837–1866), Domitila García Doménico de Coronado (1847–1938), Emelina Peyrellade Zaldívar (1842–1877), and Raúl Rivero (1945–2021), who was called "The Poet of the Revolution." A street in the city is named after Agüero.

The city is the birthplace of Atanasio Perez Rigal, also known as Tony Pérez, a member of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. He won two World Series titles with the Cincinnati Reds and was the Most Valuable Player of the 1967 All-Star Game.

The city is also the birthplace of Nicolás Guillén, the Cuban national poet, and Carlos J. Finlay, a doctor and scientist who first identified the Aedes aegypti mosquito as the carrier of yellow fever.

Camagüey is also the hometown of Mireya Luis, a volleyball player; Gertrudis Gomez de Avellanada, a poet; Silvestre de Balboa (1563–1649), a writer; Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, Marqués de Santa Lucia, a Cuban patriot and signer of the Guaimaro Constitution of 1869 and President of the Cuban Republic in Arms.

Father José Olallo Valdés worked in Camagüey and was beatified in the city on November 29, 2008.

Jorge Gutiérrez Espinosa, an Olympic champion amateur boxer in the 75 kg category at the Sydney 2000 Games, was born in Camagüey on September 18, 1975.

The city is also the birthplace of Severo Sarduy, a Cuban writer who was part of a European intellectual group in the 1960s connected to the journal Tel Quel. Sarduy was censored in Cuba throughout the 20th century and lived in Paris as an exile from 1960 until his death in 1993. He is known for redefining the transatlantic revival of the Hispanic Baroque style, which he called "Neobaroque."

Gallery

• Camagüey's Baseball Stadium
• A classic car in Camagüey
• Plaza de los Trabajadores
• Rovirosa Palace, which has original details of the facades of many houses in the city.
• Museum of San Juan de Dios
• Train station of Camagüey, postcard of 1910.
• Workers paving roads in Camagüey in 1904. Munson Steamship Line.
• Dancers of Rumba Cubana in Camagüey, 2019.
• Goat wagon peddler at the Plaza del Cristo with Church of Christ in the background, in 1895.
• Church of Santa Ana, Camagüey, in 1889.
• Church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, in 1889.
• A street in Camagüey, in 1889.
• Another church in Camagüey, in 1889, Cuba.
• Puerto del Príncipe (current Camagüey) view taken from El Cristo, in 1856 by French-born Édouard Laplante and Leonardo Barañano. Firestone Library, Princeton University.
• Church of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, in 1889.
• A central street in Camagüey in 1889.
• Maze passageways in the layout of Camagüey, photo of 1889.
• Plaza de la Revolución Ignacio Agramonte.
• An old church in Camagüey, photo of 1889.
• Calle Cristo, Camagüey.
• A building in Camagüey, in 1889.
• Church of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad, postcard of 1946.