REGLA  , formerly an important suburb of

Havana, Cuba, opposite that city, on the bay; now a part of Havana . Pop . (1899) 11,363 . It was formerly the scene of the Havana bull-fights . The church is one of the best in Cuba; the building dates substantially from 1805, but the church settlement goes back to a hermitage established in 169o . Regla is the shipping-point of the Havana sugar trade . It has enormous sugar and tobacco warehouses, fine wharves, a dry dock, foundries and an electric railway plant . It is the western terminus of the eastern line of the United Railways of Havana, and is connected with the main city of Havana by ferry . A fishing village was established here about 1733 . At the end of the 18th century Regla was a principal centre of the smuggling trade, and about 1820 was notorious as a resort. of pirates . It first secured an ayuntamiento (city council) in 1872, and after 1899 was annexed to Havana .