Plaza de la Aduana

In front of you opens the largest square in the walled city. In colonial times it was called the Plaza Real and it was the administrative and commercial heart of Cartagena: the port was very close, and everything that arrived by sea was controlled from here.

1A city founded for trade

Pedro de Heredia founded Cartagena in 1533 on the site of the Indigenous village of Calamarí. The deep, sheltered bay soon made it the main port of the New Kingdom of Granada. Whenever the galleons of the Spanish treasure fleets dropped anchor, the city filled with merchants, soldiers and goods. In the late 16th century, Governor Pedro Fernández de Busto had this area drained and laid out, and it became the great square of the port.

The long white arcaded building was the Customs House, where royal officials recorded cargoes and collected import and export duties. Today it houses City Hall.

Gold and silver left this bay for Seville; cloth, wine, oil and tools arrived from Europe.

2The dark side of trade

Another kind of «merchandise» came through this same port: thousands of enslaved Africans. At the next stop you will meet the man who devoted his life to caring for them.

The statue of Columbus that dominates the centre was put up in the late 19th century, when the city was looking for heroes for its past.

3What to look for

• The arcades of City Hall, with their columns and wooden balconies.
• The House of the Marquis of Premio Real, one of the colonial mansions facing the square.
• The statue of Columbus, on its tall pedestal in the middle of the square.