Half way along the pedestrianised Quintana street is the head office of the Canary Institute for Hispanic Studies, one of the foremost cultural institutions on the Island, founded in 1953 and devoted largely to the study and publication of material on the historic links between the Canaries and the Americas. It holds a notable picture collection belonging to the store of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Eduardo Westerdahl [the Eduardo Westerdahl Museum of Contemporary Art], the first to be founded in Spain. It contains works by Oscar Domínguez, César Manrique, Ángel Ferrant, Will Fabert, Tony Strubbing and Vicky Penfold. Its function rooms are used for art exhibitions, conferences and other cultural events. In addition, for over half a century the Institute has organised a highly-regarded annual course of Spanish for Foreign Learners.

This church and the adjoining chapel to John the Baptist are nowadays one single building. The chapel, situated in the street of the same name and that of San Amaro [Saint Amarus] in La Paz are the two oldest buildings still in existence in the Municipality. It was built between 1599 and 1608 by the stonemason Juan de Tejera. Next to it stands the Church of San Francisco which is all that remains of the former Franciscan convent. The church was built in the years following 1609 on the foundation of a previously existing chapel. Outstanding among its various religious and artistic possessions is the image of St John the Baptist from the XVIIth Century and said to be by Andrés de Ocampo and that of Christ, the only known work by the Tenerife artist Domingo Pérez Donis from the first half of the XVIIth Century, with articulated arms to allow it to be taken down before processions.

The growth of the town’s population and economy over the XVIIth Century was to permit the building of the present Parish Church on the site previously occupied by a chapel. The works, finished in 1697, were carried out thanks to the donations of the parishioners, the middle-class trades people playing a significant role in the financing. The neo-Gothic tower was constructed in 1898 , the old façade being replaced by two small pitch-pine balconies. It has a simple rectangular layout, three naves separated by Tuscan columns and round arches. Later on various chapels without any one homogeneous style were built on. Its roof is very similar to another of the town’s churches, that of San Francisco, in Mudejar style and with a ridged, tiled roof. The main altar piece , recently restored, was finished in 1710 and improved upon on numerous occasions, but always in the same baroque style. The image of the Madonna, apparently carved in Genoese style, has been in the Parish since 1621. The image has among its accoutrements a cape given as a gift by the Cuban poetess Dulce María Loynaz, Cervantes Prizewinner in 1992. The Parish’s artistic heritage includes four canvases by the Puerto painter Luis de la Cruz y Ríos (1776-1853), in his day held to be one of Spain’s best miniaturists. His paintings give the finishing touch to the neoclassical altar piece in the Chapel del Gran Poder [to God’s Might]. Worth a look is the Cross, the town’s symbol, worked in wood and coated in silver. The baroque altar piece of the Sacred Heart was a gift in 1700 from the Irish merchant Bernardo Valois.

All Saints Anglican Church is in the Taoro Park and is yet another reminder of the considerable English community which established itself in this area of town in the XIXth Century. The church is built in English neo-Gothic style. The foundation stone was laid on 7th May 1890 by the widow of Mr Charles Spencer. The first design was by the English architect Mr Franey, but it was Walter F. Woods who completed it. Its layout, materials and decoration in neo-Gothic with Anglo-Saxon and Irish reminiscences makes it a piece of Great Britain transplanted overseas. Its historicism coincides with the Victorian world view, and represents elements foreign to the Islands’ architectural tradition. The church was raised by money donated by foreign visitors and British residents, an amount exceeding two thousand pounds Sterling. The organ, pulpit, the floor tiles, the stained-glass windows, the font and the altar rail were all private donations. The manse and the altar piece were gifts from the mother of Mr Boreham and other members of his family. In 1964 the Anglican Church came under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Gibraltar.