The Monuments:
If you like big attractions, statues, and monumental structures, Cartagena doesn’t disappoint with this lineup for big, bold, and somewhat strange statues. You can find everything from obese ladies to worn out shoes:
La India Catalina: This monument honors the Carib Indian people, specifically the young interpreter who helped Don Pedro de Heredia, “founder” of Cartagena. She had been taken to Santo Domingo by Diego de Nicuesa as a child and learned Spanish, becoming invaluable for Heredia to communicate with the Calamari people. Heredia picked her up in Santa Marta before arriving to Cartagena. Soon after arriving to Cartagena, she married Heredia’s nephew and moved to Sevilla, Spain, where she was never heard from again.
Cartagena’s cinema and arts festival awards winners with the statue: “La India Catalina”.
Monumento a los Zapatos Viejos (Old Shoes): Paris has a thumb; Cartagena has an old pair of shoes. Located behind the San Felipe Castle, the artist Tito Lombana created this work to honor Cartagena’s satirical poet Luis Carlos Lopez, nicknamed “el Tuerto” (the one-eyed … No, they don’t mince words here!) and this emblematic poem.
A mi Ciudad Nativa
Noble rincón de mis abuelos: nada
como evocar, cruzando callejuelas,
los tiempos de la cruz y la espada,
del ahumado candil y las pajuelas…
Pues ya pasó, ciudad amurallada,
tu edad de folletín… Las carabelas
se fueron para siempre de tu rada…
¡Ya no viene el aceite en botijuelas!
Fuiste heroica en los tiempos coloniales,
cuando tus hijos, águilas caudales,
no eran una caterva de vencejos.
Mas hoy, plena de rancio desaliño,
bien puedes inspirar ese cariño
que uno le tiene a sus zapatos viejos…
Luis Carlos López
Monumento a los Pegasos (Pegasus): A little mythology graces Cartagena’s Convention Center. Donated by artist Hector Lombana in 1992, the three Pegasus are a popular attraction.
Escultura Gertrudis: Weighing in at a mere 650 kilos, the famous sculptor, Fernando Botero’s bronze of Gertrudis is located in the Plaza Santo Domingo.
Monument to Christopher Columbus: Donated to Cartagena in 1895, this arguably offensive statue of Christopher Columbus dominating an Indian has, understandably so, been a controversial piece.
Other statues and monuments abound including:
The Statue of Alcatraz Birds (by Spanish artist Eladio Gil in honor of Cartagena poet Daniel Lamaitre)
The Statue of Simon Bolivar
The Statue of Rafael Nunez
The Statue of General Joaquin F. Velez
The Statue of Jose Fernandez Madrid
Architecture and Archangels –
Cartagena’s Architecture and Churches, Convents and Castles, dark secret tunnels and the haunting inquisition, all within walking distance in the walled city. Once within the walls, take your time to stumble upon Cartagena’s many jewels: everything from colorful balconies to Republican architecture to cathedrals and juice stands and more. The best way to discover Cartagena is … discovering it.
City Tours: Take a four-hour chiva ride – a colorful wooden bus. It’ a great introduction to what waits within Cartagena’s walls.
The Murallas (The Walled City): Cartagena without the great walls wouldn’t be … Cartagena. After Pirate Francis Drake’s brutal attack on the city, the Spanish Crown dumped money into building these walls to protect the city from other attacks. Construction began in the 16th century and almost took two hundred years to complete. It was completed in 1796, just 25 years before Colombia’s independence.
The beautiful cobble-stoned streets, monuments, religious architecture, and famed beauty of this city all falls within the confines of the walls that are, in and of themselves, an architectural mastery.
The Clock Tower: An impressive entrance to Spain’s most important port needed grandeur and nobility. The Clock Tower’s original plans were drawn up in 1776 but because of the specifications to build the tower, technical difficulties, and exorbitant cost, the construction was lost in paperwork until 1857.
The Pegasus Docks (Muelle de los Pegasos): Located on the Bahia de las Animas, this is the absolute best place to try exquisite, exotic Colombian juices – some that you can’t get anywhere else in the country – to watch fishermen come and go, tourists rush for their boats, and take a break from the tropical heat.
Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas: This is the impenetrable Colonial Bunker of the Spanish empire being the strongest fortress ever built by the Spanish in any of their colonies. (They loved their treasures!) It was originally commissioned in 1630 and continued being built, upon completion boasting an intricate system of tunnels to connect the fortress to strategic areas in the city, ending in a sprawling, magnificent work that covers the entire San Lazaro Hill. The military engineering of Antonio de Arevalo is quite fantastic as the tunnels are constructed to detect any sound or vibration making enemy detection easy as well as communication within the tunnels.
Touring the castle is one of Cartagena’s highlights and worth it to creep around the tunnels and learn more about the engineer behind the masterpiece.
Churches, Convents, Cathedrals, oh my!:
San Pedro Claver Convent and Church: This is one of Cartagena’s most beautiful, and emblematic, pieces of architecture, filled with religious history and built around a lovely courtyard. Built by the Jesuits in the 17th century, the convent was named after the Apostle San Pedro – the Apostle of the Blacks – a monk who dedicated his entire life working with, teaching, and ministering to slaves brought over from Africa.
He lived in the convent, and you can visit his room and see the altar where they have kept his remains in a glass coffin. The visible skull adds a bit of uniqueness to the visit. There’s a museum with religious as well as pre-Colombian art. Guides are available.
La Popa Convent and Church: “The Convent of the Stern” is situated in the highest point of Cartagena. It’s a short cab ride and well worth it for a beautiful view of Cartagena below. There’s a beautiful painting of the Virgin de la Candelaria, patroness of Cartagena, in the chapel as well as a pretty creepy statue of Padre Alonso Garcia who was speared along with five Spanish soldiers for proselytizing.
Palacio de la Inquisition: Though it was one of the most brutal tribunes in the Americas (nearly 800 were judged and condemned to death here), the Inquisition Palace is a beautiful Baroque construction and one of Cartagena’s best preserved pieces of architecture. Today it’s a museum and well worth the visit.
Gold and Archeology Museum: Worth a visit to see what the fuss was about. Though, admittedly, the collection is much smaller than Bogota’s.
Santo Toribio de Mongrovejo
Ermita del Cabrero
San Juan de Dios
Nuestra Senora de la Merced
La Tercera Orden
San Agustin
San Francisco Church and Cloister
San Roque Church
Santisima Trinidad Church
Plazas and Parks Abound: Sometimes the best way to discover a place is sitting, drinking something refreshing, and watching the day unfold. Cartagena is replete with fantastic plazas to do all of the above. In fact, you could probably spend a week in Cartagena just enjoying the bubbling life around the plazas and parks. Here, we’ve listed them alphabetically. Find them on the map, and choose your route!
Bolivar Park
Plaza de Armas
Plaza de la Aduana
Plaza de la Merced
Plaza de la Paz
Plaza de la Proclamacion
Plaza de los Coches
Plaza de San Pedro Claver
Plaza de Santo Domingo
Plaza Fernandez Madrid
Plaza San Diego
Islands, Sea, Corals, and Eco-tourism:
There are opportunities to go scuba diving in Baru and the Islas del Rosario, as well as take day trips there to enjoy a day of sun and sand.
Islas del Rosario: An archipelago 35 kilometers southwest of Cartagena has 27 coral islands. It’s been well preserved, the sea is beautiful (much, much prettier than the beaches of Cartagena), and is now a National Park. Beautiful coral reefs surround the archipelago and you can visit the Aquarium in the Isla de San Martin de Pajarales. Some divers say it’s not as pretty as it used to be, but it’s still a popular spot to dive with Colombians as well as other tourists.
Isla de Barú: Baru’s claim to fame is the white beach – a beautiful white-sandy, postcard Caribbean beach. Unfortunately, it’s often overrun with people because of the aforementioned postcard-like quality. It’s a great place to snorkel.
Lunes a Viernes de 8:00am a 5:30pm
Sábado de 9:00 am a 1:30 pm
Agencia Pereira:
Lunes a viernes de 8:00 am a 6:00 pm
Sábados de 9:00 am a 1:30 pm
info@cartagenacolombia.com.co
Oficina Bogotá RNT No. 26962
Oficina Pereira RNT No. 15554