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A popular cruise stop, Cartagena is located on the Mediterranean as the sea narrows, heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar. It is fascinating due to the Roman archaeological ruins here, which can be seen through fences all over the Old Town. Walking around, parts of it are heavily reminiscent of Rome.
The city has an important place in military and commercial history. Hannibal departed from Cartagena on his expedition to Italy.
The Romans conquered the city in the third century BC and renamed it Cartago Nova. The Roman Theater they built is still an attraction today, albeit with ongoing archaeological excavation.
The feeling of the city is very modern, with shops, restaurants, and cafes. We took a free walking tour and got to hear about some of Cartagena’s rich history. Our previous post shows a museum we entered as well as some of the farther reaches of the old town. If you stop here on a cruise, a walk down Calle Mayor is highly recommended.
Muralla Del Mar, the pretty ocean walkway at the Port of Cartagena.
Plaza de Los Heroes de Cavite.
Titled ZULO, this sculpture by Victor Ochoa dates to 2009. Cast in bronze and weighing 2.5 tons, his nakedness depicts everyone’s vulnerability to terrorism.
Titled REPLACEMENT SOLDIER, this work by Fernando Saenz de Elorrieta represents a soldier tired of war.
Church of Our Lady of Grace.
The main shopping/tourist street is Calle Mayor, where everything was happening.
One scene on Calle Mayor...
…and another.
A pretty row of buildings. The ornamentation on the left one looks like curtains drawn around the window.
A closeup of the Virgin Mary mural.
Translation? The unlucky bad cat...outside a casino, no less.
An artist’s depiction of the Old Cartagena Theater.
Note the stand-alone finished building facade. Behind it is a large field of Roman ruins. We saw many examples of these in Cartagena. When ruins are found during construction of a building, work is stopped. That has lead to a “tradition” in the town that the seller of undeveloped land usually has to complete the foundation before anyone will buy the land, greatly limiting the chances that discovery of ruins will interfere with development.
Some delicate, pretty street art.
This is the Street of the Four Saints, Calle Cuarto Santes. You can see two of the shrines above the tourist’s heads. Without a tour guide, we too would have passed it by without notice. The shrines are called “lanterns” and represent, since 1745, Saints Leandro, Fulgencio, Florentina, and Isidoro.
The Peral submarine was the first in the world powered completely by electricity and the first to fire a torpedo while submerged. It was launched in 1888 and was very advanced for its time. It was nearly as capable in some ways as German U-Boats built 20 years later. US Admiral George Dewey said that if Spain had used just one submarine like it, he would not have been able to keep up his blockade of Spanish colonies for even 24 hours during the Spanish-American war. Unfortunately for Spain, they had decommissioned the sub and cancelled the project shortly after its successful sea trials. The gold-colored torpedo can be seen next to it.
Some pretty mosaic street art.
A view of the archaeological site of the Roman Theater.
A pretty historic house.
“La Mafia” – “Sit down at the table.” Uh, oh. We know what happens in restaurants when you are part of the Mafia!
Beautifully restored, this is the old arsenal.
We liked the ornamentation on this building – gives it a little character.
In the port is this sculpture of a whale tail, by the same artist as the Replacement Soldier, above.
Oh no! An elf is sprouting from the cow’s head!
This sign prohibits public urination, with a fine of 100 euros. Our guide said this particular street was used for festivals, with lots of alcohol vendors. People get drunk and “let it all out” right on the street. The fine has curtailed this practice somewhat, but people still try to get away with it.
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