La Veracruz Church

In front of you stands one of Medellín's oldest churches. Its old name, «of the outsiders», holds the first story of this route: that of people who died far from home.

1A chapel for strangers

In 1682 Captain Juan Céspedes de Hinestroza began building a chapel here, but the works stopped when the walls were only a few metres high. In 1712 he gathered a group of Europeans and outsiders living in the town, and with their money the chapel was completed in January 1713. It was called the Veracruz de los Forasteros and served as a cemetery for foreigners, who had no burial place in the locals' parish.

Beneath this floor, then, lay merchants and travellers from distant lands whose names almost nobody remembers.

2Eau de cologne and a bell

By 1791 the chapel was close to collapse and was pulled down. The Spaniard José Peinado Ruiz paid for much of the new church, which opened on 30 November 1803. The chronicles say that on that day he decorated it with flowers brought from Rionegro and sprinkled the floor with eau de cologne.

It is said that one of its bells was used by the scholar Francisco José de Caldas to cast a cannon during the War of Independence.

Today the surroundings are among the roughest in downtown. Visit by day, without getting absorbed in your phone, and then move on.

3What to look for

• The bell gable, with its pinnacles like candles above the façade.
• The Girardot monument, by Francisco Antonio Cano.
• The plain doorway, a folk Baroque very different from the cathedrals.