Villa Clara, Trinidad, Remedios, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus - between Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus; and Tierra Adentro, referring to the region between Cienfuegos and Bayamo.
Those of 1776, 1842 and 1852 were particularly destructive, and of earlier ones those of 1551 and 1624 at Bayamo and of 1578 and 1678 at Santiago.
Baracoa (the landing point), Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Puerto Principe, Sancti Spiritus, Trinidad and the original Havana were all founded by 1515.
It lies on a plain by the Bayamo river, in a fertile country, but isolated from sea and from railway.
Bayamo was the third of the seven cities founded by Diego Velazquez, and was established in 1513.