There's a place not far from downtown Tampa that has plenty of people talking.

Workers in an Ybor City cigar factory handroll cigars while a lector reads from newspaper stories. [Photo courtesy of University of South Florida Library's Special Collections]

It's a place full of history.

It's a place full of nightlife.

It's a place called Ybor City.

You'll know you've entered Ybor City when the streets turn from asphalt to brick and the lampposts from concrete to ornate wrought iron. When the atmosphere turns from button-down to bottoms up. No sterile high-rises here. Ybor City's buildings bespeak a bygone era when craftsmen prided themselves on quality workmanship. At every turn are elements of classical and Mediterranean architecture.

This multicultural enclave started out as 40 acres ofswamp and scrub northeast of Tampa. The name Ybor (pronounced EE-bore) belongs to one its founders. In 1886 cigarmakers Vicente Martinez-Ybor and Ignacio Haya moved their cigar factories from Key West to Tampa.

Tampa had everything the cigarmakers needed: a railroad, a port and a warm climate that provided a natural humidor for the tobacco leaf.

Once the cigarmaking was under way, Ybor City became home to Cuban, Spanish and Italian immigrants who worked in more than 140 cigar factories in and around the area, producing 250-million cigars a year.

For more than half a century, Ybor City was the "Cigar Capital of the World." While the cigar industry was thriving, Ybor City was alive and kicking with Latin culture and language.

Residents depended on clubs such as the Centro Espanol, Centro Asturiano and Unione Italiana for all their medical and social needs. Many of those buildings have been renovated and are in use today.

Out on La Septima Avenida (Seventh Avenue), trolly cars carried residents across town, boys sold deviled crabs on the corner and everyone was reading the latest edition of La Gaceta, Ybor's tri-lingual newspaper that's still in print today.

Many cigar workers lived in and owned small homes called casitas. Three of the casitas have been restored and are part of the Ybor City State Museum at 1818 Ninth Ave. The museum also offers walking tours of Ybor City.

The city's past is still very much a part of the present.

One of the city's renovated cigar factories is home to Ybor Square, a mall filled with dining and retail establishments at 1901 N 13th St. The 113-year-old building retains its original brick walls and wood beams and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Ybor City Brewing Co. is located in another renovated cigar building, a 104-year-old brick structure at 2205 N 20th St. Its Ybor Gold has become a favorite beer among locals.

Each year Ybor City celebrates Fiesta Day. The event is a free street festival that celebrates the city's cultural pride.

The original Fiesta Day started when the Columbia restaurant offered free bean soup to visitors and locals. As part of the celebration today, that same bean soup, cafe con leche and Cuban bread are served free. Fiesta Day 2000 takes place Feb. 12.

Ybor City is a National Historic Landmark District, one of only three in Florida.