The Matachín fort guards the eastern entrance to the town, built in 1802 as one of three Spanish coastal defences against pirate raids and slave-trader incursions. The squat stone bastion now houses the Museo Municipal, a thoroughly idiosyncratic local museum that covers the indigenous Taíno history of the region, the colonial settlement, the wars of independence, and — touchingly — the personal effects of Pelú, an eccentric local musician and folk hero who died in 1989.
The collection of polymita land snail shells is one of the better assemblages anywhere in Cuba. From the ramparts there is a fine view back along the seafront to the cathedral.