Cienfuegos

Cienfuegos (syānfwā'gōs) [key], city (1995 est. pop. 125,000), capital of Cienfuegos prov., central Cuba, a port on the Caribbean Sea. It is the marketing and processing center of a region producing sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, and rice; it also has an oil refinery, rum distilleries, fish canneries. The city is Cuba's leading sugar exporting port as well as a major fishing port. Founded in 1819 by French emigrants from Louisiana and named for one of the original founders, Cienfuegos was destroyed by a tropical storm in 1825 and later rebuilt.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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