Havana, Feb 2 (Prensa Latina) The eastern Cuban city of Camagüey celebrates its 505th anniversary on Saturday with a strong tourist inspiration that highlights its most beautiful places and the attractiveness of its traditions and history.
A day like today, but of 1514 Camagüey, provincial capital of the same name, appears to the insular palestra.
It is also known as the City of Tinajones (huge clay pots to keep water), and was founded by Spanish conqueror Diego Velazquez, at that time called Saint Mary of Port-au-Prince.
It occupies the first place in extension between the provinces with 15 thousand 615 square kilometers, representing 14.2 percent of the total surface of the country.
This village was founded on the eastern coast of the Island of Cuba in the zone of Punta del Güincho (known as Nuevitas).
A little later, the few neighbors moved to a healthier and more habitable place.
From that place and headed by their first Lieutenant Governor Diego de Ovando, they began to move inland again in 1526, leaving in 1530 the village of St. Mary of Port-au-Prince definitively to settle on its current location.
The asymmetrical layout of its streets sometimes resembles a labyrinth, and in some places a spider’s web, where any newcomer can become disoriented, which is undoubtedly an attraction for the curiosity of tourists.
Although the city grew, it maintains intact the original spirit that generally gives it an austere and stately demeanor, because it is one of the cities that best preserves its colonial atmosphere and architecture.
Its famous clay jars are found everywhere, as eminently decorative elements, although it is worth saying that their use comes from yesteryear, when these huge clay containers were used to collect rainwater that came down through the channels of the roofs.
The historic center of the city was declared a National Monument in 1980, the largest in the country, with 382 blocks on 330 hectares. Declared Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in 2008.
Vegetation is an element that has great presence, unlike other historical centers, in the patios of the houses, in urban spaces and open spaces (Casino Campestre), especially if the whole is observed from a certain height. The city has nine thousand 891 buildings of which four thousand 42 of high value.
A particular attraction of Camagüey is its Factory of Tinima Beer, that although it is produced throughout the island, it originated in this city.
Some of the most significant hotels in the city are the Gran Hotel, Plaza, Colón, Isla de Cuba, Puerto Principe, Camagüey and Camino de Hierro, among others.
