Cienfuegos: The Pearl of the South of Cuba celebrates the 205th anniversary of its foundation

Hundred fires, a city known as "The Pearl of the South" of Cuba, celebrates this April 22 the 205th anniversary of its founding.

"Fernandina the Dog" was the original name of this town founded by French settlers in 1819, under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Don Luis De Clouet.

Its first inhabitants were native settlers, but the bay began to gain notoriety after the arrival of the 46 settlers from Bordeaux, New Orleans and Philadelphia that they chose her to start a new life in Cuba.

The intention of the Spanish government when creating this town was to increase the white population of the island and develop a prosperous economy through its port, with the increase in trade in sugar, coffee, livestock and precious woods.

In 1829, the area was renamed "Cienfuegos" in honor of the Captain General of the Island, Don José María Cienfuegos y Jovellanos. At the end of the 19th century it received the status of city.

In 2005, the historic center of this beautiful seaside city was declared Cultural heritage of Humanity. Cienfuegos is the first nineteenth-century city in Latin America to receive such a distinction.

The city suffers, like other cities in Cuba, a deterioration of its urban landscape due to the scarcity of resources in the country for restoration.

However, Cienfuegos continues to be one of the towns that is characterized by cleaning its streets and an intense relationship with the sea that marks the identity of its inhabitants.

The activities to celebrate the founding of Cienfuegos are organized around the granite rosette that marks the exact place of its founding, 205 years ago, in the shade of the Jagua trees.