The Palacio Consistorial is the most handsome building on the Parque Duarte — a neoclassical former town hall in pale stone with a pedimented portico, completed in the 1890s. It served as the Santiago ayuntamiento until the city outgrew it; today the interior houses a free city history museum covering the foundation of Santiago, the Restoration War, and Santiago's role in 20th-century Dominican politics.
The displays are modest and the captions Spanish-only, but the building itself is the main attraction. It is one of the few intact 19th-century civic buildings in a city that has lost most of its older architecture to earthquakes and growth. Closed Mondays.