CIUDAD DE CURA  , an inland. town of the state of Aragua, Venezuela, 55 M . S.W. of Caracas, near the Lago de Valencia . Pop . (1891) 12,198 . The town stands in a broad, fertile valley, between the sources of streams running southward to the Guarico river and northward to the lake, with an elevation above sea-level of 1598 ft . Traffic between Puerto Cabello and the Guarico plains has passed through this town since early colonial times, and has made it an important commercial centre, from which hides, cheese, coffee, cacao and beans are sent down to the coast for export; it bears a high reputation in Venezuela for commercial enterprise . Ciudad de Cura was founded in 1730, and suffered severely in the war of independence .