Ciego de Avila - City of Cuba

Ciego de Ávila is a city in the central part of Cuba and the capital of Ciego de Ávila Province.

Ciego de Ávila lies on the Carretera Central highway and on a major railroad. Its port, Júcaro, lies 24 km south-southwest on the coast of the Gulf of Ana Maria in the Caribbean Sea. The city is located about 460 km east of Havana and 110 km west of the city of Camagüey. It was part of the Camaguey province until 1976, when Fidel Castro's government made Ciego de Ávila the capital of the newly created Ciego de Avila Province.

The municipality is divided into the barrios of Angel Castillo, Ceballos, Guanales, Jagüeyal, Jicotea, José Miguel Gómez, Júcaro, La Ceiba, Majagua, Norte, San Nicolás and Sur.


The city of Ciego de Ávila was founded by 1840, having at the time 263 inhabitants. In 1877, its municipal government was created and the city became independent of the city of Morón. Ciego de Ávila gained importance when the Spanish army built a fortified military line, known as Trocha de Jucaro a Morón, to impede the pass of insurrectionist forces to the western part of the island during the 1st War of Independence (1868-1878). This "trocha", which made this region famous, was thought to be strong enough to stop the Cuban forces, but was not able to stop the pass of General Máximo Gómez and several hundred of men. Many of the old Spanish colonial buildings in Ciego de Ávila were built by Angela Hernández Viuda de Jiménez, a rich socialite who battled to create a cultural mecca in her home town. She is sometimes credited to be the founder of the city.

Parque Martí is the largest park in the city of Ciego de Ávila.
Teatro Principal is a 500-seat theatre located just a few blocks from Parque Martí.
University of Ciego de Ávila is the province's secondary education institution.
IPVCE Ignacio Agramonte Instituto Pre-Universitario Vocacional de Ciencias Exactas con emphasis en las ciencias basicas: Fisica, Quimica, Matematica, Biologia y Electronica. Se encuentra en la carretera a Ceballos.