cartagena, located at colombia's atlantic coast, is its oldest harbour.
history, briefly:
1533 founded by the spanish empire.
1569 ransacked by french pirate ships.
1569 city destroyed by fire, creation of a firefighting squad, the first in the americas.
1574 declared "city".
1580 to 1810 main harbour for spanish ships transporting gold and silver etc.
1614 to 1796 construction of large citywall, cartagena becomes unbeatable.
1650 start of important slave market.
1811 spanish rule ends, cartagena becomes independent.
1827 university of cartagena,
1984 declared by unesco a world heritage site.
in the following a few pictures shall give an impression of cartagena's main features, including: old city walls, the cathedral, unique houses, people, and recent skyscrapers.
since about 1900, cartagena has become a very modern city, yet all the buildings from its history of 500 years are certainly a worthwhile tourism target.
