Cuba's most labyrinthine colonial city — homeland of the tinajón
Camagüey is Cuba's third-largest city and its most architecturally unusual: a UNESCO-listed historic centre of deliberately winding streets designed to confuse pirates, and enormous clay urns called tinajones in every courtyard for collecting rainwater. It has a calmer, less tourist-saturated energy than Havana, with a thriving theatre culture and some of the island's best tamales and ajiaco stews.
Founded in 1514 as one of Cuba's original seven Spanish settlements, Camagüey was ransacked by pirates so many times that city planners deliberately made its streets labyrinthine — no straight lines, no clear grid. By the 19th century it was Cuba's most prosperous interior city, producing sugar and cattle, and the birthplace of Ignacio Agramonte, hero of the independence wars. The city was granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 2008.