The influence of its settlers from Andalucia has given Camaguey some lovely ornate small plazas surrounded by colonial mansions. On June 8, 2008, the town center's 54 hectares were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Camaguey boasts a wide architectural heritage with some 300 hectares of buildings in good condition, and the largest contingent of Catholics in the country who pray in its numerous baroque churches. Its local historical hero is an army general, Ignacio Agramonte who died fighting in 1873.
Established in 1514 as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in the centre of what is now Cuba's cattle country, long known as the town of tinajones (large earthen jars), the third largest city on the island was long isolated from the rest of the island until the railway passed through in 1903, then the Carretera Central, trans-island highway in 1931.
