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Cienfuegos, the Pearl of the South, is a small city in the Central Cuban province of Cienfuegos. The historic center of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Cienfuegos, the capital of Cienfuegos Province, is a city on the southern coast of Cuba. It is located about 250 km (160 mi) from Havana and has a population of 150,000. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centers, especially in the energy and sugar sectors. The city is dubbed La Perla del Sur (Pearl of the South). Although Cienfuegos literally translates to "one hundred fires" (cien, "one hundred", fuegos, "fires"), the city takes its name from the surname of José Cienfuegos, Captain General of Cuba (1816–19).
In 2005, UNESCO inscribed the Urban Historic Centre of Cienfuegos on the World Heritage List, citing Cienfuegos as the best extant example of early 19th century Spanish Enlightenment implementation in urban planning. The downtown area contains six buildings from 1819–50, 327 buildings from 1851–1900, and 1188 buildings from the 20th century. There is no other place in the Caribbean that contains such a remarkable cluster of Neoclassical structures.