Interactive Map for Historic Locations in the Heart of the Historic District of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

The city was declared a World Cultural and Historical Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO

Clock Tower

This is the symbol of Cartagena and is also frequently used to represent Colombia. The main gateway to the inner walled city, and originally named Boca del Puente. It was linked to Getsemani by a drawbridge over a moat. There was a chapel and armory on the side arches of the gate. In 1888 the four-sided clock was added.

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The main gateway to the inner walled city, and originally named Boca del Puente. It was linked to Getsemani by a drawbridge over a moat which served as protection for the city, which was so often attacked.  The tower is in the Republican style. There was a chapel and armory on the side arches of the gate. In 1888 the four-sided clock was added. This is the principal entrance to the historic district of Cartagena de Indias.  The clock was added at the beginning of the 18th century.  The architect was the military engineer Juan de Herrera y Sotomayor, who was also the founder of the Academy of Cartagena. The architectural style involves roman arches and tuscan columns and an entablature with frieze decorated with triglyphs. The city door is one of the best preserved historic entrances to cities, and is cited by Escuela de Fortificación Hispanoamericana as one of the best preserved in the new world.

Square of the Cars

This was the location of the slave market. The statue in the middle of the square is Pedro de Heredia, the founder of Cartagena de las Indias.Originally called “Plaza de la Yerba”, the square of herbs, this was the location of the Spanish slave market. Historians estimate that Spanish galleons brought more than one million slaves to Cartagena.

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It was also first site of the city’s first Dominican convent, Convento de Santo Domingo, which was begun by Jerónimo de Loaisa, a dominican missionary and first bishop of Peru. In the middle of the square is a statue of Pedro de Heredia, the founder of Cartagena de las Indias.

Customs Square

This was the main directorate for Customs policy in New Granada and its dependencies. The plaza was also called “La Real”. This plaza has a large open space and one of the most elegant of Cartagena de Indias. This was the location of all the most important government buildings in colonial times. It is the oldest and largest square in the historic section of the city.

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In the middle of the square is a statue of Christopher Columbus. The City Hall building in this square was the old Royal Customs House.

Customs House

Customs House. Symmetrically aligned galleries that once entertained the Customs House. All merchandise entering and leaving the door paid taxes. The colonial building where today the municipal and mayor’s offices are located.The first name the building building had was, Old Royal Accounting, “Antigua Real Contaduría”.

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The building changed name in the in 1790 to Plaza de la Aduana. It is here that the founder of Cartagena de Indias resisted the ferocious attack of the French Pirate Roberto Baal, in 1544.

The House of the Royal Prize

This was the house of the Viceroys and now is occupied by the department of education. The balcony of wood is a good example of Spanish Andaluz architecture.

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The Following were the Viceroys for Cartagena, which was called New Kingdom of Granada:

  • 1740-1749 - Sebástian de Eslava
  • 1749-1753 - José Alfonso Pizarro
  • 1753-1761 - José Solís Folch de Cardona
  • 1751-1772 - Pedro Messía de la Cerda
  • 1772-1776 - Manuel Guirior
  • 1776-1782 - Manuel Antonio Flórez
  • 1782-1782 - Juan Torrezar Díaz Pimienta
  • 1782-1788 - Antonio Caallero y Góngora
  • 1788-1789 - Francisco Gil y Lemus
  • 1789-1796 - José de Ezpeleta
  • 1796-1803 - Pedro Mendinueta
  • 1803-1810 - Antonio Amar y Borbón

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of modern art, once part of the old Royal Customs House, consists of two buildings. One was constructed in the second half of the 17th Century by the Spanish so as to function as the first point of entry in Cartagena de Indias. The second building was constructed at the end of the 19th century.

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The art collection first began with a donation from the Organization of the American States (OEA). It holds temporary exhibitions from its own collection, including art works by the Colombian artist Alejandro Obregon.

San Pedro Claver Square: Cloister, Museum and Church

This church is named after a Spanish born Jesuit whose life work was helping captured Africans who arrived in Cartagena in bondage destined to be slaves. He was called the “Apostle of the Blacks’ or the “Slave of the Slaves”. The convent was first named San Ignacio de Loyola and afterwards renamed San Pedro Claver to honor his life work. The Jesuit was the first person to be canonized in the new world in 1888.

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The convent in his name, was founded by Jesuits in the first half of the 17th century and was originally called San Ignacio de Loyola. In the convent, a three-story building with a courtyard, there are exhibits of religious art and pre-Columbian ceramics as well as Afro-Caribbean art work. In addition, it is possible to visit the actual cell room where San Pedro Claver lived.  You can also go up a narrow staircase to the choir loft of the church next to it. The church itself has a stone facade that is somewhat stark, however inside there are stain-glass windows of fine work and an altar made of italian marble.  The remains of San Pedro Claver are located there in a glass coffin in the actual altar and even his skull is visible. "

Naval Museum

Located in what was once a Jesuit college, this museum opened on the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the new world. The museum was opened in 1992, on the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ “discovery” of the New World.

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It is located in a large colonial building. Among other things, in the exhibit are reconstructed cityscapes and boat models from various centuries in history.

Stronghold of San Francisco

Facing the Naval Museum, is the Baluarte de San Francisco Javier. On the immense wall is a well visited restaurant open at night outdoors with an excellent view of San Pedro Claver domain, and in the distance, the Cathedral. Cartagena de Indias has an excellent geographical location and was a haven for the treasures and riches of the Spanish crown therefore it required military strongholds called “baluartes”. These were necessary to defend the city against the many attacks of pirates and buccaneers, and so magnificent city walls and fortifications were built to surround and protect it.

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Cantina of the Candelaria

Over 300 years ago this was a good example of a private residence of the colony highest class. Legend has it that the father Fray Alonzo de la Cruz, who lived in the residence at the time, saw an image of the Virgin Mary, who told the father to build a place for worship up the mountain. The result is the the Convento de la Popa.The architecture has been well preserved and is a good example of civil style. Today it is a location of a restaurant in this marvellous colonial mansion, is well known for its cuisine.

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Gold Museum

This museum, which has free entrance, is a smaller version of the extensive gold museum in Bogota. It includes gold and pottery from before the Spanish arrived, of the Zenu indigenous people.The exploration of the Americas centered on the desire to find gold and silver for the Spanish, and the influx of such wealth contributed to the expansion of the Spanish empire. The basic Spanish silver coin was the 8-reales “piece of eight” which became widely accepted in Europe and was even used in Asia and into the global economy.  Bringing all the gold and silver to Spain from the Americas in galleon ships, which were top-heavy and hard to maneuver, caught the attention of pirates, privateers. 

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Bolivar Park

This plaza was originally named the Plaza of the Inquisition. It was also originally used for parades for the military. It is the location of the Palacio de la Inquisicion and the history museum, the Museo Historico. Latin America’s liberator, Simón Bolívar, wrote his key document in the Spanish American wars of independence from Cartagena. He lived in exile here from Venezuela. This "Liberator of five nations”, Bolívar, wrote the “Cartagena Manifesto”, in 1812 in this city.

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The document was widely read and had great influence, and outlined what he believed should be the shape of a future Venezuelan republic or of any South American republic. A few months after his arrival in Cartagena, he accepted a commission in the army of the United Provinces of New Granada, which later granted him permission to lead a force to free Venezuela from Spanish colonial rule.

Inquisicion Palace

During the Colonial era, this house served as court of the Santa Inquisicion to condemn anyone who saw the Church as an enemy. Torture instruments, along with documents, explanations and paintings on the Inquisition. Outside in front of street of the Inquisition there is a small, barred window through which the judgment delivered by the court was announced to the public.

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The Cathedral

Pirates destroyed this cathedral before it could be finished. Construction was begun in 1575 however the canons of pirates led by Francis Drake partially destroyed the church 11 years later in 1586. The cathedral was finally completed in 1612 and the structure has a fort like appearance.

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Church of Santo Domingo

The oldest church in the city, it was built at the end of the 1500’s. The original building was built in 1539 and located in the Plaza de los Coches, however, was destroyed in fire and moved to the current location.

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House of the Marquis of Valdehoyos

During colonial times this was the largest private home in Cartagena. Cultural activities took place here on a regular basis. It was originally the residence of the Marquis de Valdehoyos, who made a fortune trading flour and slaves. He was authorized by the Spanish Crown to "import" and sell slaves. About 1830s, this house was the temporary residence of Simón Bolívar, who by then was ill and eventually died in Santa Marta on the Caribbean coasts.

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Heredia Theater

Completed in 1911 in a Republican style, the theater has a ceiling mural worth seeing.

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University of Cartagena

The Universidad de Cartagena dates back to 1826, when General Francisco de Paula Santander made a decree to create the educational institution.

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House Museum of Simon Bolivar

This is the first house which Simón Bolivar occupied in Cartagena. It is also where Bolivar wrote the Manifestó de Cartagena in 1812, one year after Cartagena’s independence.

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Church of Santo Toribio

This church has damage from a cannonball from the English pirate Edward Vernon.

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