The Templete, a small neo-classical style construction, was built in the second half of the 18th Century. It is located in Plaza de Armas. This was the site where the first public mass was celebrated and also the site of the first town council of the nascent town of San Cristóbal de La Habana. The Templete resembles a Doric temple and houses three commemorative canvasses by the famous French painter Juan Bautista Vermey. One of the walls exhibits the plate that declares Old Havana a World Heritage Site.

The Palacio del Segundo Cabo (Segundo Cabo Palace) is located on the north side of Plaza de Armas Square, Old Havana. This majestic palace is Neoclassical in style and was built in 1772 with local limestone full of holes and calcareous marine incrustations. This building was first built as headquarters of the Spanish vice-governor. Currently, and after several reworkings during which it functioned as Post office, Senate Palace, Supreme Court, National Academy of Arts and Letters, or the Cuba Academy of Science, nowaday it belongs to the Cuban Ministry of Culture, and it hosts the Centre for the Interpretation of Cuba-Europa Relationship.

Plaza de Armas surrounds a statue of the patriot Céspedes and is ringed by shaded marble benches and second-hand bookstalls. This square, founding in 1519, was the city's first open space, around which the most important political, military, religious and civil institutions were located. The palaces that surrounded it during the 18th century are worthy exponents of Cuban Baroque architecture. On the square’s eastern side a small neoclassical temple, El Templete, marks the spot where the first Catholic mass was celebrated in 1519. Next door is one of the city’s most luxurious hotels, Hotel Santa Isabel. To the north, the squat but angular and moated Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Fort of the Royal Forces) is one of the oldest forts in the Americas.  

Currently the venue of the Office of the Historian of Havana, the palace was built in 1776 and has been given several functions: official residence of the Spanish governors of the island from 1781 to 1899 and of the presidency of the republic from 1902 to 1920. The City Museum currently occupies part of the sumptuous halls with permanent exhibition of arts and history of the colonial times and of the beginnings of the 20 th century. The museum exhibits valuable treasures such as: the first Cuban flag, personal effects of the heroes of Cuba: Jose Martí, Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo together with a priceless collection of colonial furniture, carriages and other works of art.