Stretching across the hillside and Caribbean coastal plain, alive and resilient as its founders in a distant earlier century intended it to be, the original historic city of Cartagena today reflects a past that leaves a memorable imprint on the traveler. Approaching the outskirts of old Cartagena today from its outer perimeter that fronts the southern Caribbean, presenting a broad panorama of architecture and edifices. This intricate urban landscape extends well beyond its protective outer walls into narrow streets lined with public and private buildings that serve modern purposes while preserving their essential structure and character.
Walls and towers guarding a prosperous port
Founded in 1533 by Spanish explorer Pedro de Heredia, the greater Cartagena of the 21st century, still formally known as “Cartagena de Indias”, is home to over a million residents. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, the city’s original historic enclave retains much of its small-scale density thanks to the low-rise architecture along its avenues and squares. What emerges in exploring the old city and its present-day inhabitants through its structure, art, food, and local events is a community that remains true to its ancient identity while moving forward in its contemporary life.
Old Cartagena would face external challenges in its earliest years. The city came under siege on no fewer than five occasions, and solid fortifications were a matter of foresight and necessity in the wake of lethal attacks that required expansion and repair. The most notable reminders of the Spanish determination to defend Cartagena are the impressive mass of the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, which dominates San Lázaro hill, and the smaller Baluarte San Ignacio, which guards Animas Bay, located in front of the La Bodeguita dock and open to visitors. The spectacular vistas of today across its neighborhoods and towards the sea were strategically essential in those times. San Felipe dominates the horizon from land and sea, and that prominence also gave notice to would-be assailants of the city’s preparedness. That vigilance was further ensured by the presence of the Fuerte de San Fernando on its other side, facing the bay of Cartagena. Dating from the 17th century, the former monastery atop the hill known as the Cerro de la Popa offers spectacular views of the urban landscape and waters, and its advantageous location also saw it serve as a fortress when necessary.
The original city would begin its gradual expansion beyond its protective walls at the end of the 18th century, resulting in neighborhoods that also reflect parts of the past timeline—but the historic heart remains here inside those walls and in districts such as El Centro, San Diego, La Matuna, and Getsemani. Thanks to the compact design of these districts, historic Cartagena remains relatively easy to explore on foot—a practical advantage that also helps in understanding this enduring legacy. Perhaps nowhere better to begin an appreciation of Cartagena across time than at the Parque de Bolívar, the enduring central hub of the old city, with its surrounding museums, churches, galleries, and contemporary life. Here, the Museo Histórico, formerly the Palacio de la Inquisición, displays artifacts and accounts of relentless religious oppression in the 17th century. Providing an affirmative statement of contemporary urban life, the open-air and courtyard spaces feature sculptures and artworks by Colombia’s leading creative figures.
The lure of gold then – and appreciation of green today
Behind much of the early European exploration of South America, which also led to the emergence of old Cartagena, lay the lure of gold and precious stones. Today, that quest is powerfully on display at the Museo del Oro Zenú, which also fronts this plaza and displays the extraordinary skills of the ancient goldsmiths of the Caribbean lowlands. This museum renovated its exhibition areas in recent years, and provides another insightful dimension of the city’s commercial life and wealth in past centuries. Aside from these formal repositories of the city’s legacy, the life of this green-infused plaza stands as a vivid example of old and contemporary intersection: here are street artists at work on their canvases, vendors selling Panama hats, and of course, the dominant statue of the liberator Simon Bolivar signifying the next chapter of this city’s existence. The major plazas within old Cartagena finely reflect the distinct episodes from an often-turbulent past – for instance, just three blocks from the Plaza Bolivar, sits the broad expanse of the Plaza de la Aduana, a former parade ground which has since evolved into an open-air space for art, commerce, and occasional public events. Anchored by an imposing statue of Christopher Columbus, the square’s walkways skirt the elegant facades of its colonial-era buildings, whose name translates as “customs,” referring to its original role as the clearing point for inbound ships and their merchandise.
Structures of that former customs activity are also present in the adjacent Plaza San Pedro Claver, where the original royal customs houses have been skillfully transformed into the Museo de Arte Moderno. Consisting of two buildings, one from the seventeenth century and the Spanish crown’s first custom house, and the second from the late 19th century, intended as an extension, the present-day interior is host to a spectrum of visual arts reflecting Cartagena’s own roots, along with a collection of Latin American paintings from the Fifties donated by the OAS. The exposed brick walls and Romanesque arches complement this range of art within the connecting galleries. The Plaza de San Pedro Claver also derives its name from the edifices which border one side of this square—the Iglesia y Convento de San Pedro Claver (Church and Convent of San Pedro Claver), dedicated to the 19th-century Spanish monk and saint who spent a lifetime caring for slaves. Nowadays, the premises welcome visitors and worshippers alike as a place of reflection and peace, with stone archways leading into patios around a verdant central space and foundations. Just outdoors on the church steps, a late afternoon may see another present-day audience gathered to take in a live concert. Memorable in their own distinctive fashion within San Pedro Claver’s square grounds are the ironwork sculptures of figures engaged in various activities, infusing the traditional borders of this plaza with their own engaging dynamism.
The old plazas today – for past story and present-day connection
Heading onward a few blocks due northeast from San Pedro Claver, you come across even more lively contrasts of past and present within the area of the Plaza Santo Domingo. Named for its dominant edifice, the Iglesia del Convento Santo Domingo, the initial visual impression is of sixteenth-century religious architectural grandeur, making the church here also the city’s oldest. Its restored interior features hallways filled with relics of the past, but the structure remains defined by its simplicity, from bare limestone pillars to the twisted bell tower above. Meanwhile, the city life of the present stands in visual contrast to the nearby sides of the square, where restaurateurs have relied on the open-air ambiance to offer sidewalk dining. Standing in counterpoint here to the design of centuries past within the square of a sculpture of a reclining figure, “Gertrudis o Figura Reclinada 92” donated by contemporary Colombian master sculptor Fernando Botero. Keeping it all fluid from hour to hour, vendors of local sweets and snacks add one final light element to this diverse canvas.
Just as the larger squares and main avenues of the historic center achieve this harmonized spirit and style, drawn from old and new eras, so too do its other neighborhoods within the old walls, such as Barrio San Diego, located at its northeastern corner. Here, lower lying houses are typical, and the pace of life remains perfect for exploration on foot past the heavy-walled mansions of white, ochre, and blue, making it also an ideal setting for the many boutique hotels that dot the streets. A pause along the small Plaza San Diego y Santa Clara reveals other examples of repurposed buildings in the form of Las Bóvedas, originally an 18th-century military depot, later a jail and a hospital, but today a pleasant arcaded row of handicraft shops.
Foods, festivals, and fine living reflecting a distinctive past
This ability of Cartagena’s original commercial and residential spaces to re-adapt for contemporary relaxation, refreshment, or entertainment is an ongoing phenomenon throughout the wider old city. Former mansions and townhomes, warehouses, convents, and commercial buildings all have provided the architectural bones and stylistic foundation upon which to invent a new purpose in guest accommodation, dining, shopping, or as a vital backdrop to a celebration of the arts. Those varied ingredients of urban history and style from the Colonial to the Republican periods find renewed purpose in everyday life within former mansions, such as the landmark Casa de la Candelaria, that have become fine-dining establishments, surrounding guests with a visual palette of the past that complements the culinary creativity of Colombia at the table. Even outposts of casual refreshment draw on original architecture for a new purpose; thus, at Abaco Libros y Café, both Colombian coffee aficionados and book lovers converge to relax or browse the bookshelves, while the store’s own jazz radio station adds its musical nuance to the vibe of old and new. More widely throughout the year, the annual international festivals of film, music, and literature make good use of the city’s open air and enclosed locations – ranging from the grounds of the Museo Histórico to public squares and the complementary ambiance of transformed dining and hotel locations within the historic center.
In its model of change, which also draws on its past, the old Cartagena of the present endures as an organic urban entity, where both the ordinary and the extraordinary contribute distinct elements to the wider tapestry of the historic city. In turn, this human and historic urban landscape offers up to each traveler an individual experience both tangible and more subtle to take away—one which may range from the presence of imposing forts and the elegant facades of street front buildings, but may also include the more personal moments that emerge—be it the vendors selling their sweets near the old town gates or within the ancient squares, or the somber walls of the La Popa surveying all from a high distance across districts and bays, or those initial glimpses of the city’s inhabitants resting within the aperture openings of the dense Las Murallas that once held defenders and their weapons. Today, only seagulls soar peacefully above the sea within the watchful range of these walls. Long known as the “Heroic City” for its will to defend against adversaries, the eyes of this “Cartagena of the Indies” still gaze out across the Caribbean horizon and into the world beyond – holding the knowledge of its gallant past and then also a welcome to friends from afar today.