Camagüey

Visited in January 2023.

The historic city, which was plundered even by Henry Morgan, but was added to the heritage list, as if because of its unique layout. There is a legend that the planning of streets and alleys of the city was specially made confusing, similar to a labyrinth, so that pirates would get lost in it. But if you put aside the legends, the layout here is like that of an ordinary historical European city. Usually, the Spanish built cities in their colonies with an irregular layout only in areas with complex relief, and they used their favorite grid method on flat surfaces. Camagüey is a rare colonial exception, which, together with the scale of the old city, makes it an good example of the transfer of European medieval urban planning traditions and techniques to the New World.

In my opinion, the city here stands out as the center of Catholicism in Cuba, with an ensemble of active churches, it is not for nothing that John Paul II visited this city during his historic visit to Cuba in 1998.

Visited this site in May 2018.

As described, this city, founded in 1528, provides a unique irregular urban layout plan with numerous squares dominated by religious buildings. Such irregular street design was likely needed to confuse and make life difficult for possible invaders (didn’t help as Henry Morgan burned the city).

There is in fact several squares dominated by a church or colonial building and connected by narrow streets. Our most favorite was Plaza del Carmen with lovely sculptures of locals doing everyday staff, like carrying famous clay pots or reading newspapers. It is also place for excellent Martha Jimenez Perez gallery. She is one of the most famous contemporaneous Cuban painter. We even purchased beautiful sketch for 80 CUCs.    

In overall, decent city with its pluses and minuses, not star attraction, probably deserving WHS status.

I visited Camaguey in April 2011. Normally I love the cuban people, but I found them overwhelming as they hounded me in the city limits.

The preserved old town is beautiful, but surrounded by the slums characteristic of a third-world city. The streets are very narrow and seemed very difficult to navigate (I was not driving).

Am I glad I went? Yes. Am I glad I paid for a tour instead of trying to make my way through the city myself? definitely. Would I revisit the city? Probably not. That said, the province of Camaguey itself is beautiful.

The Camaguey nomination file has the length of a Fidel Castro average speech. Every ice cream parlour is named. This is not helped by an El Cheapo translation into English of the file. Why this has become a WHS is a mystery, and it remained that way after I had visited the place.

It’s not an unfriendly city though. It probably has more “normal” city life than the average Cuban town: a large shopping street, terraces on the main square. Lots of churches too. It is definitely pleasant to walk around for an hour or two, exploring the many little and larger squares. But that’s about it.

The nomination draws heavily on Camagüeys Andalucian touches, but you’ll need a lot of imagination to see this parallel. The large clay jars I only saw deliberately placed on the town’s tourist trail: in the former convent/museum and next to the main church.