Camagüey

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Camagüey
Rooftops of Camagüey
Location of Camagüey in Cuba
Area Population	19.68 km² 294,000
Established Location Altitude Province	1515 21°24′04.9″N, 77°54′54.1″W 100 m Camagüey
Camaguey.cu

Camagüey (founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe around 1515) is a city in central Cuba and is the nation's third largest city. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. The city has a population of about 294,000. [1]

1 Symbols
2 Important people
3 The city layout
4 Photo gallery
5 Airports
6 External links

[edit] Symbols

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 literally everywhere, some as small as a hand, some large enough for to people to stand up in, either as monuments or for real use. Local legend has it that if you drink water from a tinajón, you will fall in love with the city and always return.

Another symbol used is the outline of Ignacio Agramonte's horseback statue.

[edit] Important people

Camagüey is the birthplace of Ignacio Agramonte (1841), an important figure of the Ten Years' War against Spain in 1868–1878. Agramonte drafted the first Cuban Constitution in 1869, and later, as a Major General, formed the fearsome Camagüey cavalry corps that had the Spaniards on the run. He died in combat in May 11, 1873; his body was burned in the city because the Spanish feared the rebels would attack the city to recover his body. The city is also the birthplace of the Cuban national poet Nicolás Guillén.

[edit] The city layout

The old city layout resembles a real maze, with narrow, short streets always turning in a 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.

[edit] Photo gallery

The clay pots	The statue of Ignacio Agramonte on the Plaza de la Revolucion	Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad	Iglesia San Francisco and Estadio Cándido González in the background
Street in Camagüey	A street next to a church in Camagüey	Puerto del Príncipe being sacked in 1668

[edit] Airports

Camagüey has its own international airport, Ignacio Agramonte International Airport. Most tourists going or leaving Santa Lucía do so through the airport.