Cartagena

Cartagena

At last I was out of the jungle and back in civilisation in Cartagena on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. It is a fabulous city with a lot of history and colonial architecture. The Clock Tower entrance to the old walled city.

 Part of the defences overlooking the ocean.

 A detail of the bartizan on one of the corners of the battlements.

Another view of some of the defences.

 The former dungeons, now a tourist market.

 The old city is full of architectural gems.

 And old style  colonial buildings.

 The cathedral.

 A picture of the tower, but the streets are so narrow that it is difficult to get a good view.

 Inside the cathedral.

 A close up of the pulpit.

The Gold Museum.

 And the San Felipe Fort that guards the city from an attack from the landward side.

 A bartizan on the walls of the fort.

 A view of one of the bastions.

 And another showing three rows of defences and the sloping walls to deflect cannon balls.

 During the War of Jenkins Ear whose hostilities lasted 1738 - 42, a British force of 27,000 attacked the fort three times and despite the defenders only having a force of 2,300, they successfully resisted all the attacks and the Commander had to retreat.

 One of the many tunnels than run under the fort.

 The sloping walls on the landward side.

 Another tunnel.

 The approach to the entrance of the fort which zig zags back and forth under the walls and always exposed to fire from the walls above.

 Another section of the wall.

 The Museum of History and the Inquisition, the inner courtyard and the museum is housed in the former Inquisition Offices.

 The guillotine with the cathedral tower in the background.

 One of the inner facades of the museum.

 Another courtyard.

 The grand entrance to the museum.