The most atmospheric part of the city is Old Santiago. Céspedes Park constitutes the political, religious, administrative and social center more important of the city. The attractive square is a genteel place with tall trees, gas lanterns and iron benches. In their perimeter were located by disposition of the Laws of Indias, the representative buildings of the power: Town Hall, Cathedral, the house of the governors and the mansions of the main families of the village. Parque Céspedes is dominated by its twin-towered cathedral. A basilica was built on this spot in 1528, but what you see was rebuilt in the early 19th century after a series of earthquakes and fires.

Visit San Juan Historic Park, a place where it was developed an important battle of the North American-Cuban-Hispanic War, bringing the end to an era. At the helm of a brigade at this battle was a future president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. The Peace Tree (Árbol de la Paz) is the tree in which it was signed the surrender of Santiago de Cuba. In the San Juan Hill you can admire various monuments in memory of the numbered casualties in both sides in the battle developed in the surroundings of Santiago on the first of July 1898. You can witness sculptures to the Victorious Mambí, to the Unknown North American Soldier and to the Spaniard Soldier surrounded by a series of cannons and artillery objects decorating the place. This is the only place in Cuba with a monument to the American soldier. Furthermore, quite close to the hill, a ceiba tree named the Peace Tree (Árbol de la Paz) witnessed the surrender of the city, although nowadays just remains the trunk of this historic tree which fell few months after the centenary of the battle.    

This Spanish-colonial mansion was the birthplace of poet José María Heredia, who, because of his pro-independence writings, is considered Cuba's first national poet. Heredia died in 1839 at age 36 while exiled in Mexico. The house, now just a fraction of its original size, displays period furniture and some of the poet's works and belongings. The home's traditional interior patio is planted with trees and plants—including orange, myrtle, palm, and jasmine—associated with Heredia's verse. A marble plaque on the house's Calle Heredia facade excerpts one of the poet's most famous works, "Niágara".

Cuba's oldest museum was founded in 1899 by Emilio Bacardí Moreau, the former Santiago mayor whose rum-making family fled to Puerto Rico after the Revolution. It is just a few metres from the Parque Céspedes, in the heart of the city. The museum has an excellent collection of Cuban art, as well as some European works, some items from the wars of independence and an archaeological hall that features a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy, two Peruvian skeletons and a shrunken head. It houses the most important painting gallery in Cuba, displaying an enviable collection of colonial painting dating back two centuries.