The Rubén Martínez Villena Public Library is a singular cultural institution located on Obispo Street, number 160, between Mercaderes and San Ignacio, in the Plaza de Armas, in Old Havana. Inaugurated on February 24, 1960 in its beginnings as a specialized library of the then Institute of Financial Affairs of the Ministry of Finance, the current Villena Library had as antecedent the existence of a room with the same name that offered public library services from the same institute to solve the demands of information of the inhabitants of the locality.

The current building, whose facade blends harmoniously with the surrounding architecture, has a comfortable and functional building with spacious areas and reading rooms distributed over four floors, where the user or visitor can access traditional and/or electronic services and the use of a library collection with a variety of themes and titles in different formats.

This library has collections suitable for children, adolescents, young people and adults. The center provides cultural promotion services, technical information processing, as well as restoration and conservation of the bibliographic heritage. It has also carried out an important cultural program that promotes literature, handicrafts, doll making and oral narration workshops, among others. Lectures are given in this facility and events and exhibitions of books and plastic arts are held. Near the Library is the El Templete monument complex, as well as the former Palaces of the Captains General and the Palace of the Second Corporal, respectively.