GUANABACOA (an

See also:

• INDIAN

Indian name meaning " site of the

See also:

• WATERS, TERRITORIAL

waters ")  , a town of Cuba, in Havana province, about 6 m . E. of Havana . Pop . (1907) 14,368 . Guanabacoa is served by railway to Havana, with which it is connected by the Regla ferry across the bay . It is picturesquely situated amid woods, on high hills which furnish a fine view . There are medicinal springs in the town, and deposits of liquid bitumen in the neighbouring hills . The town is essentially a residence suburb of the capital, and has some rather pretty streets and squares and some old and interesting churches (including Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, 1714-1721) . Just outside the city is the church of Potosi with a famous " wonder-working " shrine and image . An Indian pueblo of the same name existed here before 1555, and a church was established in 1576 . Already at the end of the, r 7th century Guanabacoa was the fashionable summer residence of Havana . It enjoyed its greatest popularity in this respect from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century .

It was created a

villa with an ayuntamiento (city council) in 1743 . Ir, 1762 its fort, the Little Morro, on the N. shore near Cojimar (a bathing beach, where the Key West cable now lands), was taken by the English .