Camagüey (Spanish pronunciation: [kamaˈ(ɣ)wej]) is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 333,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province.
It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by Spanish colonists on the northern coast and moved inland in 1528, to the site of a Taino village named Camagüey. It was one of the seven original settlements (villas) founded in Cuba by the Spanish. After Henry Morgan burned the city in the 17th century, it was redesigned like a maze so attackers would find it hard to move around inside the city.
The symbol of the city of Camagüey is the clay pot or tinajón, used to capture rain water and keep it fresh. Camagüey is also the birthplace of Ignacio Agramonte (1841), an important figure of the Ten Years' War against Spain. A monument by Italian sculptor Salvatore Buemi, erected in the center of the area to Ignacio Agramonte, was unveiled by his wife in 1912. It is composed of an equestrian statue, reliefs in bronze that reveal fragments of the life of Agramonte, and a sculpture of a woman that symbolizes the motherland.
In July 2008, the old town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of its irregular, maze-like city planning, its prominent role in early Spanish colonization and agriculture, and its rich architecture showing a variety of influences.
Camagüey was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe on 2 February 1514, by Spanish colonists led by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at a location now known as Nuevitas on the northern coast. It was one of the seven original settlements (villas) founded in Cuba by the Spanish. The settlement was moved inland in 1528 to the site of a Taíno village named Camagüey.
The new city was built with a confusing lay-out of winding alleys. There are many blind alleys and forked streets that lead to squares of different sizes. One explanation is that this was done by design, to make the city easier to defend from any raiders; by the same version, the reason that there is only one exit from the city was that should pirates ever return and succeed in entering the city, it would be possible for local inhabitants to entrap and kill them. However, locals dispute this reasoning as a myth, asserting that in truth the city developed without planning at all, and that winding streets developed out of everybody wanting to stay close to their local church (the city has 15 of them).
During the eighteenth century the city was called Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe; between 1747 and 1753 Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga, then captain governor of Puerto del Príncipe, rehabilitated the city, which had been badly damaged during the War of Jenkins' Ear, and Unzaga also rebuilt the Church of La Merced.
Upon Cuba's independence from Spain, in 1898, was when the city and its surrounding province received the current name of Camagüey, as a result of the independence from Spain. The indigenous name was already before used to refer to the region "El Camagüey" in reference to the local chief ('cacique') Camagüebax, who ruled between the Tínima and Hatibonico rivers, and was approved on that date for the province that had been created in 1878, the province in this same year was a militar region by the republic in arms.
Located on a plain in the middle of its province, the municipality borders with Vertientes, Florida, Esmeralda, Sierra de Cubitas, Minas, Sibanicú and Jimaguayú.
In 2022, the municipality of Camagüey had a population of 333,251. With a total area of 1,106 km2 (427 sq mi), it has a population density of 300/km2 (780/sq mi).
The symbol of the city of Camagüey is the clay pot or tinajón, used to capture rain water to be used later, keeping it fresh. Clay pots are everywhere, some as small as a hand, some large enough for two people to stand up in, either as monuments or for real use. A local legend is that if you drink water from a "tinajón", you will stay in Camagüey ("Quien tome agua del tinajón, en Camagüey se queda"), meaning that if you meet a Camagüeyana girl, you will fall in love with her and never leave. The main secondary education institutions are the University of Camagüey and the Instituto Pedagógico de Camagüey.
The Big Clay Jars or Tinajones were storage jars used to transport wine, oil and grain in the city and introduced by the Spaniards during the early-modern times as the solution to the city's water shortage, placed beneath gutters so that they could fill the water. Slightly tapered at one end, they were half-buried in earth, keeping the water cool and fresh. They soon came to be produced in the town and every house inside and outside, and a family's wealth could be assessed by the style and quantity of their tinajones. This is what historians and archaeologists confirm. At the beginning, in Spain these jars were used to preserve oils, especially olive oil, hence the Spanish brought the model to the early Camagüey, immediately it became in traditional use and a local symbol among the residents of Camagüey adopting creative ways of decorating in those times in the Cuban city.
The old city layout resembles a real maze, with narrow, short streets always turning in one direction or another. After Henry Morgan burned the city in the 17th century, it was designed like a maze so attackers would find it hard to move around inside the city.
Camagüey is a colonial city resembling a real maze streets, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The city has more than 30 Catholic churches, testimony of its colonial past, of which we can name the following:
"Church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen", baroque church with two towers, it was completed in 1825.
The Cathedral of Camagüey, dates back to 1530 when it began as a chapel, completed in 1864.
The "Church of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad", is the most symbolic church in the city and was built during the 18th century. In its historical photos it does not appear painted, this gave the façade and its tower a very rustic appearance, it is today painted yellow. Inside there are decorated baroque frescoes and the sacred font where the hero Ignacio Agramonte was baptized in 1841.