[1] In 2000, the Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

In the center of the plantation is the owner's residence, generally built in the style of Basque architecture, adapted for a tropical climate.

[3] Surrounding the owner's house were the slave quarters, made of flimsy wood and roofed with branches and leaves.

[3] Each plantation also includes a terraced drying floor ('secadero') for coffee bean preparation and other buildings for milling and roasting.

[1] French colonizers established coffee plantations in the 18th century on the island of Hispaniola, but the independence of Haiti in 1804 caused them to flee to Cuba, which was then under Spanish rule.