The first known settlement in the state of Cienfuegos is the town of Rodas, located to the north-west of the city of Cienfuegos. This town was also named Damují because it occupied a hill around which the Damují river and its largest tributary, Jabacoa, wind around. Thanks to this river, it was possible to lead an economic and socio-cultural life here. In the Palo Liso cave (Cueva de Palo Liso), discovered on the Congoja-Cartagena Road, east of Rodas, traces of pre-Columbian aboriginal life were found. Studies carried out in this cave and the region around it, showed evidence of very ancient populations that probably lived in the period from 4,000 BC to 1,000 BC (early agro-pottery period). There are also other places where ancient life has been found, such as La Ceiba (where the Salado River blends into Cauto river), Cayo Ocampo in the Bay of Jagua and the town San Ignacio of the municipality of Abreus that is located on the west of the city of Cienfuegos.
The first information about settlement in Cienfuegos after Christopher Columbus is based on the observation of Sebastián de Ocampo. In 1508, Nicolás Ovando, the governor of Hispaniola, commissioned the Galician Sebastián de Ocampo, who had accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, to follow the Cuban coast with ships. The purpose of this trip, which went down in history as a bojeo, was to prove whether Cuba is an extension of a continent, as Christopher Columbus claimed, or just an island. The voyage lasted eight months, as the ships had to move against the powerful Gulf Stream to return to Santa Domingo. Ocampo verified that Cuba was a very extensive and fertile island with peaceful inhabitants and that there was gold in the country. During the circum-navigation, he explored the Bay of Jagua and recognized a small island which still bears his surname (Cayo de Ocampo).
According to the rumor, the first European that settled in Jagua (former name of Cienfuegos) was Joseph Díaz that has built an incomplete country house of Mudejar style on the site where Valley Palace is today. Joseph Díaz was in good relations with the indigenous people, the Siboneys, so that one day he met the beautiful native Indian Anegueía that gave him many children. It is said that he came to the island with the second voyage of Christoph Columbus (1493-1496) and settled on the land that he baptized as Amparo in the area called Punta Gorda today (formerly, Tureira). As it can be understood, Joseph Díaz had settled on the island long before the Spanish invasion, launched by Diego Colón, the governor of Hisponiala and son of Christopher Columbus, by sending Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar to the island in 1512.
Diego Velázquez arrived in the territory of Jagua in 1513. He was accompanied by the Spanish priest Bartolomé de las Casas that had also joined Christopher Colombus on his second voyage (1493-1496). The Spanish settled temporarily in Cayo Ocampo. In 1514 Bartolomé received a parcel in Canarreo, on the banks of the Arimao River, near Cienfuegos, in return for his service during the conquest of the island. Together with his partner Pedro de Rentería, he extracted gold from the river. Although he treated the Indians gently and taught them the doctrine of Christ, he ordered his entrusted Indians to extract gold in the mines and plant crops and whatever else he wanted.
On the other hand, Diego Velázquez had in mind to set up new settlements in line with Spain's commercial interests. Today's Trinidad deserved to establish a new colony here, with its proximity to precious metals, its suitability for cattle raising, and its excellent geographical location. Indeed, at the beginning of 1514, Velázquez announced the foundation of the Villa de la Santísima Trinidad. Trinidad is the third villa founded by the Spanish crown in Cuba.
The establishment of new colonies in Trinidad and later in Sancti Spiritus further retarded the already backward Jagua region's contribution to the island's socioeconomic development. The fact that the gold mined by primitive methods was depleted in the region in a short time also played a role in this retardation. Land in the Jagua region began to be distributed to influential people of the administration in Havana and Trinidad, so that these Spanish people confiscated the land of the natives who settled in this region (around the bay) and started to grow tobacco and to raise cattle on large ranches. The solitude of the area led to the contraband trade. Nooks and corners filled with exuberant coastal vegetation were providing a safe area for pirates and filibusters, who flocked to this shelter with the purpose of trading with the inhabitants of the region. The landowners benefited the propitiousness of the place for the stay of corsairs and pirates with whom they traded their products. According the popular legends, the first pirate that visited Jagua Bay was Guillermo Bruces, who arrived the area with his henchmen to bury his treasure near the shore. Jacques de Sores (1554), Francis Drake (1586), Tomás Baskerville (1602), Gilberto Girón (1604), Henry Morgan (1604), and Jean Lafitte are among the famous pirates and corsairs (the sea wolves) that visited the Jagua Bay freely. French pirates and corsairs took possession in Cayo Carenas (the only inhabited islet in the middle of the Bay of Cienfuegos) and Playa Alegre (on the east side of Punta Gorda, within the city limits). Jagua Bay was a good outlet for them to make trade with the inhabitants of the region by escaping from the increasing pressure of the metropolis on them.
Between the 16th century and the end of the 18th century, there predominated two major economic activities in the region: growing tobacco and raising cattle. As Trinidad and its surroundings became insufficient to meet the tobacco needs, lands around Cienfuegos and around important rivers such as Arimao, Caonao, Mataguá and Damují were devoted to tobacco cultivation. The increase in wealth resources in the region has led the Spanish government that was aware of the great economic and strategic importance of the region, to try to put this place in order and to take it under full control. Even the Creole landowners started to speak about the fortification of the unprotected bay, as their economic interests were harmed by the illegal trade with the pirates and corsair. Subsequently, from the end of the 17th century and throughout the 18th century, some projects were prepared and presented to protect the region. For example, the Spanish Chief Engineer and Infantry Colonel Bruno Caballero y Elvira prepared a project about the fortress in 1724 and built the structure on a small height that will form the core of the castle in 1727-1729. The Royal Trade Company of Havana (Real Compañía de Comercio de La Habana) soon announced that they would provide the necessary financial support for the construction of the castle.
When the Spanish King Philip V (1683-1746) ordered to build such a fortress at the entrance of the Jagua bay by a royal decree in 1735, the viceroy of Mexico was asigned the mission of fortifying the bay. The French military engineer Joseph Tantete Dubruller received the order to start with the construction of the fortress immediately. In 1733 the first stone was laid on the foundations that have been built by Bruno Caballero y Elvira in 1729. At the beginning the construction progressed very slowly, but it accelerated after Joseph Tantete Dubruller put his full strength to work in 1742. Thus, the fortress could be completed after 12 years of construction period, in 1745.
With the completion of the fortress that was called as Fortaleza de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Jagua (Fortress of Our Lady of the Angels of Jagua), not only the Jagua bay, but probably also the entire south coast became more secure against the pirates and the corsairs that prowled the Caribbean coast in those days, creating an almost impenetrable defense line together with the Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca in Santiago de Cuba (briefly Castillo del Morro). He was the third most important fortress built on Cuba, after the the Morro Castles in Havana and in Santiago de Cuba. In 1762, it was the seat of the Spanish military command, during the brief English occupation of the Island. Sometimes it served as a prison where people fighting against the Metropolis were held captive.
On January 1, 1818, the French Infantry Lieutenant Colonel Luis Lorenzo De Clouet y Piette (1766-1848) proposed to Jose Maria Cienfuegos Jovellanos, the Spanish military Governor and Captain General of Cuba from1816 to 1819 and to Alejandro Ramirez Blanco (1771-1821), Chief of the Treasury of Cuba, to establish a new Spanish colony around the Jagua Bay. Some people are interpreting the establishment of a new colony was part of a broader Spanish strategy to encourage the settlement of French immigrants in Cuba to counterbalance the influence of other European powers in the region.
Indeed, at that time, following the way
from Batabanó, 46 French settlers from Bordeaux and
Louisiana, along with Dr. Domingo Monjenié and the land
surveyor Domingo Dubroct arrived at the area called
Cacicazgo de Jagua by
early Spanish conquistadors (current Cienfuegos).
They moved to the banks of the Saladito river, and with the direction of De Clouet they
intended to establish the colony in the place known as Sitio
de Hurtado (Stolen Site), a place very close to an old
settlement that was abandoned by the Taino
indigenous people
(probably in Coacoí). The land was the property of Marine
Brigadair Honorato Bouyón. Here, they camped in eight tents,
shacks and roughly built huts.