Together with the nearby Valle de los Ingenios, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988, because of its historical importance as a center of the sugar trade in the 18th and 19th centuries.

[4] Trinidad is one of the best-preserved cities in the Caribbean from the time when the sugar trade was the main industry in the region.

Caught in a hurricane, the expedition lost two ships, twenty horses and sixty men to the violent storm.

The whole municipality counts the consejos populares (wards) of Centro, Zona Monumento, Armando Mestre, La Purísima, Casilda, Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Azucareros (FNTA), Condado, Topes de Collante, San Pedro, Manacas - Iznaga, Algarrobo, Pitajones, and Caracusey.

The older parts of town are well preserved, as the Cuban tourism industry sees benefit from tour groups.

Only a few square blocks in size, the historic plaza area has cobblestone streets, houses in pastel colors with wrought-iron grilles, and colonial-era edifices such as the Santísima Trinidad Cathedral and Convento de San Francisco.