Cartagena Travel Guide

Cartagena
The city of Cartagena offers visitors a complete historical and cultural tour in which they can immerse themselves in 3,000 years of history, ranging from countless archaeological remains that enable us to relive the Roman period as well as the numerous buildings with different architectonic styles: modernist, baroque, ect.

Archaeological Remains

-          Interpretation Centre of the history of Cartagena (La Concepción Castle)
At the top of this castle you will discover the different landscapes that surround the city.  The telescopes found here will tell you many interesting things about the city.  Once inside the castle, you will learn about the city’s evolution, including a gallery with the different celebrities known through the history of Cartagena.

-          Roman Theatre
Located in the northern side of the ‘Concepción’ castle.  Its construction began in the last 1st century B.C.

with materials such as travertine marble from murcian quarries in Mula, grey limestone from the Mar Menor area, green marble and yellow sandstone found in the surroundings of Cartagena.  This theatre was dedicated to Cayo and Lucio, foster children of Emperor Augusto.  Among the most important pieces recovered so far are three white marble altars dedicated to the Capital Triad, another two altars made with the same material, with inscriptions mentioning Cayo and Lucio, and a white marble relief of a young woman sitting on a rock.

-          Punic Rampart
This wall surrounded Quart-Hadast, (former name for Cartagena) towards the end of 3rd century B.C after the foundation of the city by Asdrubal.  The design of the wall is based on a fortified Hellenistic model found along the Mediterranean Sea. It’s comprised of two parallel walls with big sandstone blocks that stood over three meters high at some points.  The site includes a projection room, an exhibition room, a “fun space” specially created for children, and a chapel’s crypt dating from the 16th to the 19th century.

-          Decumano-Three Kings’ Square
At this archaeological site, made up of three different remains, you will find an arcade, along one of the sidewalks, of a commercial area and of two establishments known as “taverns”.  On the other sidewalk there are signs of a public building, that is, of public baths.  Among the findings of these baths include the “caldarium”, a small semicircular room with a hot water pool; the “praeturnium”, furnace that produced warm air for the caldarium; a room with pink marble floor, three “hipocaustum” or accesses, and a “frigidarium” or cold water pool.  The third remain the “Decumano Maximo”, the most important road of the city, built in the 1st century B.C.  However, the arcade and the public baths are dated around the 4th century A.D., result of later renovations.

-          Augusteum
During the 1st and 2nd century A.D., priests gathered at this building to pay tribute to the emperor.  Today you will find an area dedicated to the Forum (public square) of Carthago Nova (Cartagena), as well as the meaning of other buildings related to the forum, decorative materials, marble floors and other utensils.

-          Byzantine Rampart
These remains, preserved in the basement of a Municipal Exhibition Centre, belong to the arcade built around the garden by which one accessed the theatre.  During the Byzantine domination, in the second half of the 6th century A.D., they were reused as the city’s rampart.  Underneath the remains of the theatre arcade, there are ruins of a house from the 1st century B.C., with two rooms decorated with mosaics.
 
Modernist Buildings
-          Cervantes House: built by Victor Beltrí in the year 1990, it is notable for its balconies, decorations, iron fittings and bronze sculptures in relief on the doors.

-          Llagostera House: also built by Beltrí around the year 1916, it is decorated with painted ceramics.

-          Grand Hotel: initiated by Tomas Rico and concluded by Victor Beltrí, it has an important façade due to its vertically and abundant baroque decorations.

Baroque and Neo-classical churches

-          Carmen Church: It is made up of three naves and eight chapels.  It was built in 1970, and was part of the Carmelita convent.

-          Santa Maria de Gracia Church: This is also a three naves church with eight chapels built within 1712 and 1772.  It holds a neo-baroque appearance in the inside due to the reconstruction carried out after the Civil War.

-          Santo Domingo Church: It was founded in 1580, and was once part of a Dominican convent.  It is made up of a transept nave with side chapels.

Museums

-          Archaeological Museum: Inaugurated in 1982, this museum preserves in its interior a Paleochristian necropolis (4th – 5th centuries A.D.), as well as an important local archaeological collection, arranging discoveries 1,400,000 years old to the 19th century in chronological order.

-          National Museum of Maritime Archaeology: Also inaugurated in 1982, it exhibits various Punic and Roman items recovered for underwater sites along our coast. You may also find ancient ships’ models and the reproductions of a real size Roman merchant ship.

-          Naval Museum: This museum, with a surface area of 2,768 squared metres, contains in chronological order, the Navy’s historical background.  Among the extraordinary items we may mention those of naval construction, navigation, submarines, artillery, weapons, ect.

-          Artillery Museum: Located in the old Artillery Park, it offers different aspects related to the history of this Arm in the city, such as maps, models, miniatures, documents, weapons, uniforms and paintings.