Plaza de Bolívar and the Palacio de la Proclamación

In front of you is the square that was the seat of power in Cartagena for centuries. Before it was named after Bolívar it was called Plaza de la Iglesia, then Plaza Mayor and, from 1610, Plaza de la Inquisición, because the feared tribunal moved into one side of it.

111 November 1811

The building with white arches is the Palacio de la Proclamación, once the seat of the provincial government. Here, on 11 November 1811, the governing junta signed the act declaring Cartagena independent from Spain. It did not do so of its own accord: a crowd of craftsmen and lancers from the Getsemaní district, led by the blacksmith Pedro Romero, surrounded the palace and demanded a complete break. Cartagena thus became the first province of present-day Colombia to declare full independence.

Cartagena's independence did not come only from elegant drawing rooms: it also came from the street and from the workshops of the outer district.

Freedom did not last long. In 1815 General Pablo Morillo besieged the city for more than a hundred days. Hunger and disease killed thousands before it surrendered, and that siege is the origin of the title «Ciudad Heroica», the Heroic City.

2The statue and the square today

The equestrian statue of Bolívar arrived in 1896, the work of the Venezuelan sculptor Eloy Palacios. The square has carried his name ever since. Find a bench in the shade: it is one of the best refuges from the heat in the old town.

3What to look for

• The Palacio de la Proclamación, with its arcaded gallery on the upper floor.
• The statue of Bolívar, his horse rearing on a granite pedestal.
• The colonial mortar in one corner, found near Bocachica and brought here in 1930.