Historic Centre
“I only needed to take a step inside of the wall to see her [to Cartagena] in all its grandeur to the light mauve of the six in the evening, and I could not repress the feeling of having been born again,” wrote Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his autobiography Live to Tell it.
The streets of the neighborhoods of San Diego and Gethsemane are surrounded by a wall of military-colonial, built four centuries ago. Its mission was to prevent invasions of navigators English and French. Its original shape remained almost intact to the present day, leaving a defence to become a door into yesterday.
The streets Garage Hobo, The Curacy of Santo Domingo, The Seven Infants, The Tumbamuertos and other more in the neighborhood of San Diego are full of colonial architecture, churches, theatres, convents, colleges, and houses that survive the passage of time and of the people. It is not only about walls, windows, and balconies, but also of stories that are discussed to be of historical events or legends mythologized.
In 1666, in San Diego, began the construction of the Church of Santo Tomas de Villanueva, today known as Santo Toribio. By this time, the cloister was part of the everyday life of the high class cartagena. Housed beautiful, almost divine, religious images, and a beautiful baroque altarpiece.
27 April 1741 the bullet of a gun came out of a pirate ship and entered by the gate of the Church of Santo Toribio up to the feet of the priest, without causing damage only to scare, according to the chronicles written at the time.
When walking through this neighborhood all the senses delight; look, listen, feel and live.
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