Cartagena Walled City

Cartagena de Indias rises behind a continuous line of stone walls that were built over three centuries to repel pirate raids, yet the city that grew inside them is anything but defensive in spirit. Founded by Spanish conquistadors in 1533 on a marshy island at the mouth of Cartagena Bay, the city became the main port for shipping silver extracted from the mines of Potosí in present-day Bolivia, a trade route that made it one of the wealthiest cities in the Americas and an irresistible target for English and French corsairs.

The old town is a dense mosaic of terracotta-roofed colonial mansions, baroque churches and bougainvillea-draped balconies arranged along narrow streets that funnel Caribbean sea breezes through the walls. The Plaza de los Coches, connecting the port to the walled city, is flanked by the Portal de Tierra, an arcaded commercial building from the 17th century that once housed merchant warehouses. From here the calle de las Damas leads to the Casa de la Armada, where the city's oldest garden and courtyard provide a rare moment of quiet inside the walled perimeter.

In the Plaza de la Trinidad, the church of Santisima Trinidad watches over a cobblestone square where local vendors set up in the mornings and the evening brings a different population of restaurant diners and street musicians. The church's façade features a polychrome tile roof and a tower added in the 18th century, and its interior contains a notable collection of colonial-era religious paintings by the Cartagena School that document how European sacred art was adapted for a Caribbean audience.

The Castillo San Felipe de Barajas dominates the hill above the Getsemaní district: a 16th-century fortress whose tunnels were designed by Dutch engineers to let defenders hear approaching enemies through the stone. The fort's lowest level descends 12 metres below ground and was designed to withstand siege, with rain barrels that could supply water for 1,000 men for three months. Walking the upper ramparts gives a panoramic view of the bay and the Bocachica channel that ships had to navigate to reach the port.

Walking the 16th-century walls at sunset is the essential ritual of any visit; the sea on one side and the candlelit rooftops of the old city on the other have not changed as much as the five centuries since their construction might suggest. The Baluarte de San Juan Nepomuceno is a favourite viewpoint, named after the patron saint of Bohemia and reinforced in the 18th century with the cannon positions that still point out to sea.

Cartagena's economic boom of the 19th century funded the ornamental facades of the Plaza de la Independencia, where wealthy merchants built townhouses in a French-inspired style that still lines the boulevards south of the walled centre. The Plaza takes its name from the independence movement that freed Colombia from Spanish rule in 1810, and the triumphal arch at its north end commemorates the liberator Simón Bolívar, who used Cartagena as his operational headquarters during the campaign to free northern South America.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most completely preserved colonial cities in the Americas.

The 16th-century stone walls and bastions offer unobstructed Caribbean sunset views unique in the Caribbean.

The Bocachica channel, the Castillo San Felipe and the Getsemaní district together illustrate three centuries of military, commercial and cultural history.