Cartagena

Cartagena de Indias is recognised through walls, coloured façades and Caribbean humidity. Yet the city cannot be contained within an image of balconies and restored plazas. It served as a strategic Spanish imperial port, a transit point for metals and goods, one of the principal places of arrival for enslaved Africans in the Americas and a setting for attacks, sieges and resistance.

The contemporary city extends far beyond the historic enclosure. Getsemaní, Manga, Bazurto, Bocagrande, La Boquilla and many other districts form a diverse Cartagena where heritage, tourism, inequality, Afro-Caribbean culture and everyday life overlap.

A bay turned into a fortress

Geography explains much of the history. Cartagena occupies a bay protected by islands, channels and narrow entrances.

This position supported commerce and demanded a defensive system of immense scale. Walls, bastions, batteries and forts controlled access from sea and land.

From the ramparts, the relationship between harbour, historic city and modern expansion becomes visible.

Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas

San Felipe dominates a hill opposite the walled centre.

Ramps, tunnels, galleries and changes of level reveal engineering designed to resist siege and control enemy movement.

The fortress also represents forced labour, imperial expenditure and a city constructed through deeply unequal relationships.

The walled city

Inside the enclosure stand plazas, churches, colonial houses, republican buildings and former administrative spaces.

Plaza de los Coches preserves the memory of a principal entrance and commercial activity connected with the port.

Plaza de la Aduana recalls imperial administration, while Santo Domingo brings religious architecture, housing and public life together.

Heritage and transformation

Many houses became hotels, restaurants and shops.

Restoration preserved architecture while changing use, price and social composition.

The beauty of the historic centre coexists with questions about who can live there and which memories receive visibility.

Getsemaní

Getsemaní was a district of craftspeople, port workers and popular communities.

It played a decisive role in the independence movement of 1811 and retains a strong neighbourhood identity.

Murals, plazas and narrow streets tell history through daily life rather than official institutions alone.

Plaza de la Trinidad

Plaza de la Trinidad acts as the social centre of the district.

Church, housing, vendors, music and community gathering share an intimate space.

The place shows a historic plaza remaining active within neighbourhood life.

Murals and community memory

Getsemaní murals represent Palenquera women, musicians, leaders, animals and episodes of local history.

They form not a closed museum but an archive distributed across façades and lanes.

The works make visible memories long excluded from the monumental story.

Gentrification and tourism pressure

The popularity of Getsemaní transformed housing and commerce.

New accommodation and businesses increased land values and displaced part of the resident population.

The district reveals tension between conservation, tourism economy and community continuity.

The port and Atlantic slavery

Cartagena was one of the principal ports of arrival for enslaved Africans in the Americas.

This history appears in archives, plazas, buildings and trade routes, while also continuing through music, food, hair, language and family memory.

Understanding the city requires connecting monumental wealth with the slave system that helped support it.

San Pedro Claver

The church and convent of San Pedro Claver are connected with assistance given to enslaved people arriving at the port.

The site brings religion, aid, colonial authority and violence into one institution.

Claver’s story gains meaning when placed within the system that made such assistance necessary.

Palace of the Inquisition

The Palace of the Inquisition preserves spaces connected with religious control, punishment and colonial administration.

Documents and objects show institutions regulating belief, bodies and behaviour.

Elegant architecture contrasts with the violence of the functions once housed there.

San Basilio de Palenque

San Basilio de Palenque was founded by people who escaped slavery.

Its language, music, social organisation and traditions preserve deep African heritage.

The community represents resistance, autonomy and cultural creation rather than victimhood alone.

Palenquera women

Palenquera women became one of Cartagena’s strongest visual symbols.

Clothing, fruit and hair traditions belong to a complex economic and cultural history.

Their presence in plazas and streets connects tourism, labour and Afro-descendant memory.

Zenú Gold Museum

The Zenú Gold Museum presents objects, ceramics and knowledge belonging to Indigenous peoples of the region.

Water-management systems developed by Zenú communities reveal engineering adapted to floodplains.

The collections extend history beyond Spanish foundation.

La Boquilla

La Boquilla is an Afro-Caribbean community north of the city.

Fishing, mangroves, channels and community life form a direct relationship with the coastal landscape.

Hotel and urban expansion placed pressure on territory, housing and traditional activity.

Mangroves

Mangroves protect the shore, filter water and shelter fish, crustaceans and birds.

Their roots create a landscape adapted to tides and salt.

Conservation is closely tied to the continuity of coastal communities.

Rosario Islands

The Rosario archipelago forms part of a marine park of reefs, mangroves and highly diverse waters.

Coral, fish and seabeds depend on clean water and tourism compatible with fragile ecosystems.

Pressure from boats, waste and construction reveals the limits of tourism growth.

Bocagrande

Bocagrande presents a Cartagena of towers, hotels, commerce and urban beaches.

Its skyline contrasts with the walls and reflects twentieth-century tourism growth.

Comparing both landscapes reveals different relationships between city, coast and economy.

Bazurto Market

Bazurto contains fish, meat, fruit, vegetables, music, workshops and goods from across the region.

The market reveals the everyday scale of supply and labour supporting the city.

Its products connect the Caribbean, inland Colombia and surrounding communities.

Cartagena food

Coconut rice, fried fish, plantain, egg arepas, bollos and tropical-fruit sweets belong to the local table.

The cuisine combines Indigenous, African and European roots within a distinct Caribbean tradition.

Flavours preserve trade routes, domestic techniques and family memory.

Gabriel García Márquez and the city

Cartagena was deeply connected with the journalistic and literary life of Gabriel García Márquez.

Streets, balconies, heat and Caribbean atmosphere appear transformed in his work.

The relationship between literature and place adds another layer to historic plazas and buildings.

A city larger than the postcard

Cartagena remains memorable for the relationship between bay, walls and Afro-Caribbean culture. San Felipe, Getsemaní, La Boquilla, Bazurto, the islands and modern districts form a city where commerce, slavery, resistance, tourism and daily life remain intertwined.

Its singularity lies in the coexistence of heritage, memory, sea and family life.