Historic Centre and Getsemaní Guided Walking Tour Cartagena

Clock Tower, Plaza de los Coches and the Portal de los Dulces

The walk begins at Plaza Cervantes on the Camellón de los Mártires, a promenade lined with busts of the patriots executed in 1816 when Spanish troops retook the city. In front stands the Clock Tower gate, the Puerta del Reloj, the main entrance to the Walled City since colonial times; the yellow tower with its clock was added in 1888. Step through and you are in Plaza de los Coches, once the square where enslaved Africans were sold, and the start of the enslavement route your guide follows along Porto Carrero and Candilejo streets.

Along one side runs the Portal de los Dulces, an arcade where women have sold traditional sweets for generations: cocadas of coconut and panela, alegrías and tamarind balls. Your guide explains how this trade was one of the few ways women of African descent could earn a living, and why their families keep it alive. It is the classic first photo of any Cartagena old town walking tour.

Plaza de la Aduana and San Pedro Claver Church

Plaza de la Aduana is the largest and oldest square inside the walls. It takes its name from the royal customs house, where goods arriving from Spain and the Caribbean, and tragically human beings, were registered and taxed. The restored building is now the Municipal Hall, the seat of the city government. Along this stretch your guide points out, from outside, the Museum of Modern Art with its Caribbean and Latin American collection, the Gold Museum with pre-Hispanic gold work of the Zenú people, and the Emerald Museum.

Beside the square rises San Pedro Claver Church and Monastery, with its coral-stone façade and dome. It is named after the Jesuit priest who spent nearly four decades caring for enslaved Africans arriving at the port in the 17th century, and his remains rest beneath the main altar. On the tour you see it from the plaza; the cloister and museum open most days from morning to late afternoon with a separate ticket, so allow an hour if you return.

San Ignacio Bastion, the city walls and Plaza Bolívar

Cartagena's walls run for about 11 kilometres around the old city and took nearly two centuries to complete, after English and French raiders sacked the port in 1586 and 1697. At the San Ignacio Bastion, near the waterfront, your guide explains how bastions, cannons and thick coral-stone walls made this the best-defended port of the Spanish Caribbean. In 1984 the port, fortresses and monuments of Cartagena were inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Plaza Bolívar, the old main square once called Plaza de la Inquisición, is shaded by tall trees and framed by balconied mansions, the cathedral tower and the baroque Palace of the Inquisition, where the tribunal sat from 1610. Fruit sellers and street dancers gather here in the afternoon, and its benches make a welcome pause on a Walled City Cartagena tour. This is also where you hear about the declaration of independence of 11 November 1811, still celebrated every year with music and parades.

Centennial Park and the Getsemaní cultural corridor

Leaving the walls behind, the walk crosses Centennial Park, the Parque del Centenario, laid out in 1911 for the hundredth anniversary of independence. Look up into the trees: sloths, squirrels and iguanas live here, and the guide usually knows where to find them. On the far side lies Getsemaní, the old suburb outside the main walls where artisans, sailors and freed families lived, and where the independence movement of 1811 found many of its strongest supporters.

Today Getsemaní is the most colourful district of Cartagena. The Getsemaní hour of the tour leads through the cultural corridor, where strings of umbrellas, flags and paper birds shade the lanes and large murals by local artists tell stories of Afro-Caribbean identity, music and neighbourhood life. Your guide also introduces salsa and champeta, the Afro-Colombian dance music born on this coast. The neighbourhood is at its best in the late afternoon, when neighbours sit outside their doors and the street art glows in the low sun.

Callejón Ancho and Calle San Juan

Callejón Ancho and Calle San Juan are two of the most photographed streets of Getsemaní: low colonial houses painted ochre, turquoise and pink, wooden window grilles, hanging plants and a mural at nearly every corner. On this final stretch the guide finishes the story of the district's revival, from a working-class quarter to a creative neighbourhood of small guesthouses, cafés, workshops and galleries.

The tour ends here, a short walk from Plaza de la Trinidad, the lively square in front of a 17th-century church where families and travellers meet in the evening. Is Cartagena's historic centre worth visiting after dark as well? Yes: the squares fill with music and street food stalls once the heat drops. From Getsemaní you can walk back to the Clock Tower in about ten minutes, or take a taxi to your accommodation.