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Havana was founded on 1519 by the Spaniards like Villa de San Cristóbal de la Habana.
During several centuries it meant a strategically important point for Spain by his characteristics of harbor city and the privileged geographic location to the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico, which granted a place in the commercial interchange and the communications between Old and the New World under the denomination of "the Key of the Gulf".
The city was subject of innumerable attacks of privateers and pirates, attracted by the wealth that were accumulated in the ships in bay, for their later shipment to the metropolis, which forced the Spanish authorities to construct a defensive system without equal in America, surrounding the large city with a great wall.
From these times the city conserves like example for the visitors the Alameda de Paula avenue next to the port, the Arms Squares and the Cathedral, the Castle of the Real Force, Morro Castle and La Cabaña Castle, the palaces of the Spaniards Commanders in chief, as well as the rest of the wall and streets still paved that defy the time to be able to show all the greatness of their past.
At the end of 1982, the old historical center, the urban extension of the 19th century, the channel of the port with their two shores and the fortifications that served as defense, were declared by UNESCO as Patrimony of the Humanity, as international recognition to the policy of safeguard of its historical and cultural values.
It is the greater city of the Caribbean, as well as the center of everything what represents Cuba. In spite of his turbulent history, Havana was little damaged by the civil wars and the revolutions, and actually continues being a large extent as it was constructed more ago than one hundred years. Havana counts on numerous examples of Spanish colonial architecture, many of which they are being recovered. It has, in addition, a nocturnal life very animated, with cinemas, historical theaters, cabarets, nocturnal clubs and local musical comedies.
The province is mainly a vast located agricultural plain around the City of Havana. In its South coast the City of Havana was nailed for the first time, and later was transferred towards its present location in the North coast.
In the Havana City all the economic activities are represented. Its fundamental base is the industry and the services, as well as the centers of political and economic administration of the country. Industries: nourishing, pharmacy, biotechnological, light, fishes, petroleum refinery, textile, factories of cigarettes and tobaccos, and iron and steel. It has the greater port of Cuba where prodinate the load and unloading of goods.
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