Few cities can say they moved twice before finding their place. Camagüey is one of them. It was born around 1514 as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe, one of the first seven towns that the adelantado Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar planted in Cuba during the colonization of the island, but its original site had nothing to do with the current one: the town changed location several times before settling definitively inland, and that turbulent origin marked its character forever.
The town was initially founded on the north coast (linked to Nuevitas Bay), but problems —among them attacks and the difficulties of the site— led to its relocation. After an intermediate stage, the town was finally established, around 1528, inland, at its current location, next to lands that had belonged to the indigenous chiefdom of Camagüey. That indigenous name of the region would end up, over the centuries, prevailing popularly over Puerto Príncipe, until the city came to be officially called Camagüey.
The definitive inland settlement, far from the coast, responded in part to the need to protect itself from maritime attacks. The new town developed in an area of vast savannas, which oriented its economy toward cattle ranching, and it grew in a particular way that would give rise to one of its most famous hallmarks: its irregular, labyrinthine urban layout, unlike that of any other Cuban colonial city.
The most singular feature of Camagüey, and the one that most fascinates visitors, is its urban layout. While the vast majority of Spanish-American colonial cities were organized following the grid model —straight streets crossing at right angles around a central square—, Camagüey grew as a maze of narrow, curving, twisting streets with no regular pattern, with alleys that end in little squares and fork off unpredictably.
The most widespread and popular explanation for this layout has to do with pirates. The town, despite being inland, suffered attacks by corsairs and buccaneers who came up from the coast; the most famous was that of the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan, who raided and sacked Puerto Príncipe in the 17th century. According to tradition, the residents deliberately designed (or reinforced) the town's labyrinthine layout to disorient attackers: a pirate who entered the maze of alleys would be lost and at the mercy of the defenders, who knew every corner.
Other historians, more skeptical of the legend, attribute the irregular layout simply to spontaneous, unplanned growth, with no prior design, conditioned by the terrain and the ownership of the plots. Whatever the real cause, the result is indisputable: Camagüey has one of the most original urban ensembles in the Americas, and that maze is today one of the city's great assets and a tourist attraction in itself.
Camagüey's economy rested, during the colonial era, on the vast savannas surrounding the city, ideal for cattle ranching. Puerto Príncipe became one of the great ranching areas of Cuba, and that wealth, together with trade, sustained the growth of a prosperous city, with numerous churches, convents and stately mansions that still today make up its heritage. That abundance of temples earned it one of its nicknames: the 'City of Churches'.
The region, however, had a problem: the scarcity of rivers and running water. To solve it, the Camagüeyans developed a solution that would end up becoming their most endearing symbol: the tinajones. These enormous clay jars, descendants of Spanish jars and made by local potters, served to collect and store rainwater in the patios of the houses. They became so numerous that they turned into a hallmark of the city, which came to be known also as the 'City of Tinajones'.
A romantic legend even grew up around the tinajones: it is said that whoever drinks water from a Camagüeyan tinajón stays to live in the city, or falls in love with a Camagüeyan. Beyond the myth, the tinajones reflect the ingenuity of a community that knew how to adapt to its surroundings, and today they adorn squares, patios and corners throughout the historic center, recalling the material, everyday history of Camagüey.
Camagüey holds a prominent place in the history of Cuba's struggles for independence in the 19th century. The city and its region were the scene of the Ten Years' War (1868-1878), the first great independence conflict, and gave the Cuban cause one of its most admired heroes: Ignacio Agramonte y Loynaz, known as 'El Mayor'.
Agramonte, a Camagüeyan lawyer and patriot, became one of the main military leaders of the Liberation Army in the region. He is remembered for his integrity, his bravery and for legendary episodes, such as the famous rescue of General Julio Sanguily, in which Agramonte, with a handful of horsemen, freed his captured comrade in a daring cavalry charge. He died in combat in 1873, young, becoming a martyr and symbol of mambí dignity. His equestrian statue presides over Camagüey's central park, which bears his name, and his birthplace is now a museum.
To the patriotic tradition, Camagüey added a notable cultural and intellectual tradition. The city is the birthplace of the great Cuban national poet Nicolás Guillén, one of the most important voices in 20th-century Spanish-language literature, and of other figures of letters and the arts. That combination of independence heroism and cultural vitality is an essential part of the Camagüeyan identity, a city proud both of its mambises and of its poets.
Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, Camagüey developed an intense cultural life that sets it apart within Cuba. A symbol of that flourishing is its Teatro Principal, an elegant historic hall with stained glass, chandeliers and 19th-century-style decoration, which has been the stage of the city's artistic life and one of the most important venues in the country. The theater reflects the taste and prosperity of the Camagüey of other times and remains today a source of local pride.
In the second half of the 20th century, the city added a cultural jewel of international standing: the Ballet de Camagüey, founded in 1967, which became one of the most prestigious classical dance companies in Cuba and Latin America, second only to the famous Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Based at the Teatro Principal, the company has trained top-level dancers and carried the name of Camagüey to stages around the world, consolidating the city's fame as an exceptional artistic center.
To that tradition are added the rich literary life (with the legacy of Nicolás Guillén and others), the galleries, the artists' workshops —like that of the sculptor Marta Jiménez Pérez, creator of the popular bronze figures of Plaza del Carmen— and a bohemia that can be felt in squares and streets. Camagüey is thus not only a museum of colonial heritage, but a city of living culture, where art is part of daily life.
The exceptional value of Camagüey's historic center gained the highest international recognition in 2008, when UNESCO inscribed the 'Historic Centre of Camagüey' on the World Heritage List. The distinction recognized both its singular urban layout —that maze of irregular streets unique in the Americas, the fruit of its peculiar history— and the richness and authenticity of its architectural heritage: its churches, squares, convents and colonial mansions, magnificently preserved.
UNESCO valued Camagüey as an exceptional example of a relatively isolated inland colonial urban settlement, which developed its own urban planning and architecture, far from the usual models. The recognition covers a broad ensemble of the historic center, with its emblematic squares (San Juan de Dios, el Carmen, Agramonte), its numerous temples and the fabric of streets that articulates the whole, together with the tinajones that characterize it.
Today, Camagüey combines its status as a great city of central-eastern Cuba with that of a protected heritage jewel. It is at once a living city, with its cultural life —the Ballet, the theater—, its economy and its people, and a first-rate tourist destination for those seeking authentic colonial heritage, far from the more crowded circuits. Getting lost in its maze of streets, discovering its squares and churches and letting yourself be caught by the water of its tinajones —as the legend says— remains one of the most singular experiences Cuba has to offer.