1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/San Antonio de los Baños

SAN ANTONIO DE LOS BAÑOS, a small town in Havana Province, Cuba, about 23 m. (by rail) S.W. of Havana. Pop. (1907) 9125. San Antonio de los Baños is served by the W. branch of the United Railways of Havana. It is on the banks of the Ariguanabo river, which drains a lake of the same name, and is itself one of the many “disappearing rivers” of the island; it disappears in a cave near San Antonio. The town has mineral springs and baths, and is a summer resort of the people of Havana. Though spreading over hills, the plan of the town is regular. The tobacco of the Vuelta Abajo lands immediately around the city is famous. The pueblo arose in the middle of the 18th century as a camp for convicts from Mexico. It became a villa in 1794. Early in the 19th century refugees from Santo Domingo settled here and founded coffee estates that gave the place great prosperity until the expulsion of the French in 1809; subsequently the cultivation of tobacco renewed its prosperity.