Village
Cartagena is a Mediterranean port city, capital of the Campo de Cartagena and seat of the Regional Assembly of Murcia, founded as Qart Hadasht by the Carthaginian Asdrúbal el Bello in 227 BC on an earlier Iberian or Tartessian settlement. It reached its Roman height as Carthago Nova, a provincial capital, and later, as Carthago Spartaria, was an important city of the Byzantine possessions on the Peninsula before its destruction by the Visigoths. From the 16th century its military role was strengthened by its port, and in the 18th it was capital of the Mediterranean Maritime Department. Today it is one of Spain's richest archaeological centres and celebrates its Carthaginians and Romans festival as well as Holy Week, a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Internacional (the highest tourism distinction the Spanish State grants to a festival). It has more than 220,000 inhabitants.
Monument
Roman theatre of Carthago Nova, discovered by chance in 1988, with no prior historical or archaeological record: over its remains, various buildings were erected through the centuries, among them Cartagena Cathedral, which partly overlies the theatre. It was a direct commission of the emperor Augustus as part of his policy of Romanisation, combining local materials and techniques with decorative elements imported from imperial workshops, in marble from Carrara or Greece. One of the largest theatres of Roman Hispania, with capacity for 7,000 spectators, it is today showcased in the Roman Theatre Museum, the work of Rafael Moneo, inaugurated on 11 July 2008; the route begins at the Riquelme Palace and descends beneath the city to the original tiers.
Monument
The Punic wall of Cartagena is an archaeological site from the 3rd century BC, the oldest surviving remnant of the city and one of the few remains of Punic defensive constructions preserved in Spain. In 227 BC the Carthaginian Hasdrubal the Fair founded the city of Qart Hadasht here, the Carthaginian capital on the Iberian Peninsula, probably over an earlier Iberian settlement called Mastia. The wall, which follows Hellenistic models and is built of tabaire with more than three metres of height preserved, defended the city until the siege by the Roman general Scipio Africanus, which put an end to Punic rule in Cartagena. The remains can be visited today at the Punic Wall Interpretation Centre, the only visible vestige of the Punic era in Spain.
Monument
Medieval fortress of the 13th-14th centuries built on the remains of a 12th-century Muslim alcazar, on one of the five hills that historically protected Cartagena, with panoramic views over the Roman theatre, the harbour and the whole bay. After the city's conquest in 1245 by the then infante Alfonso X the Wise, he ordered it fortified, raising the castle at the highest point, replacing the old alcazaba, of which the lantern that served as a lighthouse is still preserved. The castle, which shares stonemasons' marks with those of Aledo and Lorca, was left unfinished after the dissolution of the Order of Santa María de España, founded in Cartagena by Alfonso X for the naval struggle against the Muslims and dissolved after losing almost its entire fleet.
Monument
One of the largest urban archaeological parks in Spain, on the Molinete hill, with remains of the forum and public buildings of Roman Carthago Nova; the Roman Forum Museum serves as the entrance to the site.
Monument
The Augusteum forms part of the Roman forum of Cartagena, beneath the present-day Plaza de San Francisco, in the city's historic centre, and is integrated into the route of sites of the Cartagena Puerto de Culturas itinerary. After being raised in 44 BC to the rank of Roman colony under the name Colonia Urbs Iulia Nova Carthago, the city underwent, during the rule of Augustus, a process of Romanisation and urbanisation that made it one of the most splendid in the Empire. The building excavated south of the square served as the college of the augustales, or priests of the imperial cult, and it is today conserved and open to visitors. Also located in the forum are a temple to the Capitoline Triad and the curia, seat of the colony's government, decorated with luxurious marbles.
Monument
The National Museum of Underwater Archaeology, located next to Cartagena's harbour and attached to the Ministry of Culture, is heir to the Board of Underwater Archaeological Excavations created in 1970 and the National Museum and Centre for Underwater Archaeological Research established in 1980, whose building was inaugurated in 1982 at the Dique de Navidad. In 1983 it was renamed the National Museum of Maritime Archaeology, and after the construction of a new building approved in 2001, the present museum opened on 26 November 2008, inaugurated by infanta Cristina. It is devoted to heritage sunk in Spanish waters, and its name, Arqva, fuses the Latin words Archaeologia and Aqua.
Monument
Roman house of the Republican period preserved below street level in the centre of Cartagena, with wall paintings and mosaics that illustrate domestic life in ancient Carthago Nova.
Monument
The first major work of the architect Víctor Beltrí in Cartagena (1897-1900), built for the Cervantes family on Calle Mayor, with an Art Nouveau façade of floral motifs and tilework preserved intact. The commission, from the mining entrepreneur Serafín Cervantes Contreras, was Beltrí's first opportunity to introduce Catalan modernisme to the city, and the result earned him numerous commissions from the local bourgeoisie. On the ground floor was installed the Café España restaurant, whose display of suspiros (meringue sweets) inspired the composer Antonio Álvarez Alonso in 1902 to write the pasodoble Suspiros de España. The building, of four storeys in Novelda marble and brick, displays on its pediment symbols of Commerce, Industry and Mining; of its original interior decoration only the façade survives.
Monument
The Gran Hotel de Cartagena is the most important Art Nouveau building in the Región de Murcia. It was commissioned by the mining entrepreneur Celestino Martínez Vidal from the architect Tomás Rico Valarino, who began the works in 1907; from the mezzanine level onward, Víctor Beltrí took over direction and completed the project. It was inaugurated on 29 February 1916 as one of the best hotels in Spain. During the Civil War it was requisitioned as the headquarters of the Unified Socialist Youth. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2012, it was reopened in 2016 as part of the events of the Year of Modernisme. It retains its original façade and rolled-steel structure, with a curved body topped by a zinc dome, one of the symbols of the eclectic architecture of central Cartagena.
Monument
The city hall, an 1907 work by the architect Tomás Rico Valarino, of triangular plan and with a grand imperial staircase inside, built on the site of the former town hall. The works, begun in 1900 to replace the old 16th-century Herrerian town hall, produced one of the main Art Nouveau buildings in Cartagena. The façade, of white marble and zinc domes, repeats the city's emblems: the Concepción Castle and the mural crown granted by Scipio Africanus. Around the staircase are arranged the plenary hall, the mayor's office and a collection of paintings of illustrious figures. Closed in 1995 due to structural damage caused by its foundations resting on land reclaimed from the sea, it reopened restored in 2006.
Monument
Aguirre Palace, the work of the architect Víctor Beltrí, was commissioned in 1898 by the mining entrepreneur Camilo Aguirre, following the success of the Casa Cervantes, and completed in 1901, already in the early years of the 20th century; it is today home to the Regional Museum of Modern Art (MURAM), an outstanding example of the Art Nouveau architecture of Cartagena's mining bourgeoisie. Its façade features ceramic decoration of angels, a mirador in the Cartagena tradition, and sculpted bees, a modernista icon of prosperity founded on labour. Inside are preserved the ballroom, in neo-rococo décor with allegorical ceiling paintings of spring by Cecilio Pla, the office next to the mirador, the vestibule, the imperial staircase and a neo-Gothic oratory.
Monument
A museum devoted to Cartagena's long naval and military tradition, the historic base of the Spanish Navy in the Mediterranean, with pieces, models and documentation on its arsenal and its strategic role. A branch of the Naval Museum of Madrid, it was inaugurated on 8 July 1986 and since 2012 has occupied the former Seamen's Training Barracks, a mid-18th-century building by the military engineer Mateo Vodopich, facing the Dársena de Botes, which previously served as a penitentiary centre and prison. Among its pieces are the model of the training ship Juan Sebastián de Elcano, remains of the ships Nuestra Señora de Atocha and Santa Margarita, and a room devoted to the Marine Infantry with paintings, photographs, weapons and uniforms of its bands.
Monument
The Castillitos Battery, also called C-1, stands at 250 metres on Cape Tiñoso, within the municipality of Cartagena; it was built and armed between 1933 and 1936, as part of the defensive belt that the Primo de Rivera dictatorship gave to the stronghold of Cartagena, with two Vickers-Armstrong 38.1-centimetre coastal guns, capable of firing a projectile of almost a tonne to 35 kilometres. Together with its twin, the Cenizas battery, it protected the entrance to the bay in crossfire, and it went so far as to fire on the Francoist navy in April 1937. It remained in service until 1994; after years of abandonment, the Ministry of the Environment restored it in 2009 and opened it to visitors. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1997, its façade imitates a medieval castle to conceal it from the sea.
Monument
Coastal fortification built between 1930 and 1934 between the bay of Portmán and Calblanque, in service until 1981, part of the military defence system around Cartagena.
Monument
The lighthouse of Cabo de Palos stands in Cartagena (Región de Murcia), on a rocky promontory crowning the last spur of Cartagena's coastal sierra, which sinks into the sea and reappears at the Hormigas islands. In 1554 Charles I ordered the tower of San Antonio to be raised here to watch for Barbary pirate attacks, replaced in 1862 by the present lighthouse, which entered service on 31 January 1865, the same day as the one at Portmán. The building, of square plan and 20 metres to a side, is topped by a tower 12.50 metres high crowned by a cornice on sixteen corbels. In 2025 it was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection). Around it spreads the former fishing village, today known for its cuisine.
Activity
Processions declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Internacional (Spain's top-level designation for festivals of tourist interest) in 2005, led by four brotherhoods, among which stands out the historic rivalry between the Californios and the Marrajos, one of the reasons Cartagena preserves so many processional parades. They run from the early hours of Good Friday Eve, feast day of the patroness Our Lady of Charity, until midday on Easter Sunday; the first Marrajo processions on record took place in 1663. Their epicentre is the church of Santa María de Gracia, an 18th-century temple with an unfinished façade, in the old town. The penitents march to the beat of the drum, in unison, and the whole brings together sculptural work by Salzillo, Benlliure and other great image-makers.
Activity
Historical re-enactment festival held in Cartagena (Región de Murcia) since 1990, during the second half of September, to commemorate events of the Second Punic War in the city. It re-enacts the founding of Qart Hadasht by the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal the Fair around 227 BC, Hannibal's departure for Rome and the conquest of the city by Scipio Africanus in 209 BC, with parades, the Great Battle, encampments and ritual dances invoking Punic and Roman gods. It has been declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Internacional (Spain's top-level designation for festivals of tourist interest) since 22 June 2017, under the motto Y después del verano, Carthagineses y Romanos.
Activity
Music festival that Cartagena holds every July since 1995, organised by the City Council through its Department of Culture together with various sponsors, and devoted above all to world music; since 1998 each edition has focused on the artists of a particular country. The concerts are spread across indoor and open-air venues throughout the city, such as the cathedral, the Concepción Castle, the El Batel Auditorium, the courtyard of the Seamen's Training Barracks or the Town Hall Square. In 2017 it received the award for Best Small-Format Festival in Spain at the Fest Awards, and in 2019 it won the Ondas Award for Best Festival in Spain.
Nature
Protected natural area on the Cartagena coast with unspoilt beaches where vehicle access is restricted, dunes and one of the best preserved coastal areas in the Region of Murcia.
Nature
The Cabo de Palos and Islas Hormigas marine reserve is a protected underwater natural area of about 19 km² between the lighthouse of Cabo de Palos and the Hormigas islands, in Cartagena. It stands out for its great biological diversity and the good state of conservation of its seabed, with extensive Posidonia meadows and coral colonies. Protected since 1995 to preserve its flora and fauna and to serve as a reserve for commercial species, it combines zones of full protection with others of restricted use and is included in the Natura 2000 Network. The shoals of the Hormigas islands, whose name comes from the grasshoppers that once colonised their slopes, have historically been a hazard to navigation: the ocean liner Sirio sank there in 1906, with numerous victims.
Curiosity
The extensive municipality of Cartagena, covering 558 square kilometers, is organized into numerous coastal and inland hamlets such as El Algar, La Palma, Pozo Estrecho, Perín and Los Nietos, each with its own identity and festive calendar.
Monument
The Museo del Teatro Romano de Cartagena is the work of the architect Rafael Moneo, opened on 11 July 2008, devoted to the project of excavating, restoring and making known the city's Roman theatre. The theatre, commissioned directly by the emperor Augustus as part of his policy of Romanisation, was discovered by accident in 1988: there was no historical or archaeological record of it, since buildings had been erected over its remains until it was completely hidden, among them Cartagena Cathedral itself, partly superimposed on the theatre. Its construction employed local materials and techniques together with decorative elements imported from imperial workshops, with marble from Carrara and Greece.
Monument
Centre in Cartagena displaying remains of the 3rd-century BC defensive wall, with an exhibition on the Punic Wars between Romans and Carthaginians.
Monument
The group of coastal batteries of Cabo Tiñoso, in the protected landscape of Cabo Tiñoso y Roldán (Cartagena), was built in the 1930s to defend the bay and the naval base of Cartagena. The Castillitos battery, of 1933-1936, mounted two Vickers-Armstrong guns of 38.1 cm capable of firing shells of almost a tonne 35 kilometres; it fired on Francoist troops in April 1937 and remained operational until 1994, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1997. The Roldán battery, of 1926, was armed in 1933 with four 105/45 mm anti-aircraft guns and fired more than 600 shells between 1937 and 1938; deactivated in 1965, it now appears on the Lista Roja del Patrimonio (a register of heritage at risk). Both can be toured on hiking routes from the Cabo Tiñoso lighthouse.
Monument
The Torre Ciega is a Roman funerary monument from the 1st century BC located on the outskirts of the historic centre of Cartagena, next to the old road into the city, where a large necropolis once extended. It is one of the three best-preserved Roman funerary towers on the Iberian Peninsula, along with the Torre de los Escipiones in Tarragona and the Torre de Hércules in Villajoyosa. Ancient engravings preserve the inscription, now illegible, which dedicated the monument to Titus Didius, proconsul of Hispania Citerior in 94 BC. Its outer facing, in opus reticulatum of andesite, remained in good condition until the 18th century, when legends of hidden treasure led to it being bored into; it was restored in the mid-20th century by Pedro San Martín.
Monument
An 18th-century fortification designed in 1765 by the engineer Pedro Martín Zermeño on Mount Galeras, in the diputación of San Antonio Abad, within the municipality of Cartagena. Its construction, directed by the engineer Mateo Vodopich, was completed in 1777, as part of the programme to improve Cartagena's defences driven by Charles III to protect the shipyards, next to the nearby castillo de la Atalaya. It entered Spanish history in the early hours of 11-12 July 1873, when a group of federal republicans roused the garrison in revolt, sparking the Cantonal Rebellion, an episode linked to the legendary, now discredited, anecdote of a Turkish flag raised by mistake. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1997, it now belongs to the Navy and cannot be visited.
Monument
Fortification located next to the lighthouse of the same name, to the right of the port of Cartagena, which protected the entrance by crossing its fire with the batteries of Santa Ana and Trincabotijas. Neoclassical in style, with casemates for eight pieces of artillery on the ground floor and another eight en barbette on the upper floor, it was built over an 18th-century en barbette battery from 1740, the work of the engineer Esteban de Panón, as part of the O'Donnell Plan or Defence Plan of 1860. Next to it stands the Torre de Navidad, a hexagonal structure possibly from the 16th century, of a design similar to that of La Azohía. Today it houses a museum display and is used by Cartagena Puerto de Culturas as part of the route on the city's defensive system.
Monument
A small fort integrated into Cartagena's defensive system, built in the 18th century, next to the castles of Atalaya, Navidad, San Julián and Galeras. It stands at 56 metres on the cerro de los Moros, from which it takes its name, a strategic position already used in 1706 by the artillery of the Duke of Berwick during the War of the Spanish Succession; its construction, in a Frenchified neoclassical style, was designed by the engineer Juan Martín Cermeño and directed by the Croatian Mateo Vodopich between 1773 and 1778, after Cartagena was named capital of the Mediterranean Maritime Department. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1997, it passed into municipal hands in 1929 without receiving use or upkeep, so today it is in a state of prolonged deterioration and has featured since 2014 on the Red List of Heritage of Hispania Nostra.
Monument
An amphitheatre from the 1st century, built on the cerro de la Concepción in Flavian times, possibly over an earlier one from the Republican era, with capacity for between 10,000 and 11,000 spectators. Andesite from Cabezo Beaza and tabaire stone from Canteras were used in its construction, which has an elliptical plan resting partly on the rock of the hill and partly on vaults and buttresses. Unlike the city's Roman theatre, its ruins were always visible, and in 1854 the present-day bullring was built over its tiers of seating, making use of the Roman structure for its foundations. It is now being fully excavated and restored, with a project that will respect both constructions and will incorporate an annexed building dedicated to the Municipal Archive and to the future Museum of the city of Cartagena.
Monument
The Civil War Refuge Museum occupies a tunnel dug into the hillside of Monte de la Concepción, reached from Calle Gisbert, one of the many air-raid shelters that Cartagena built during the Civil War in the face of bombing by the rebel side, prompted by the city's status as a naval base of the Republican fleet. The largest of these attacks, the four-hour bombing, was carried out by the Condor Legion on 25 November 1936 and destroyed, among other buildings, the Cathedral of Santa María la Vieja. The shelter, begun in that context, was left unfinished when the city was occupied on 31 March 1939, although it came to have capacity for more than 5,000 people; it opened as a museum in 2004, with rooms on daily life and on passive and active defence.
Monument
The submarine Peral, the first submarine in history with fully electric propulsion, launched in 1888 and invented by the Cartagena-born sailor Isaac Peral, is today on display next to the Naval Museum of Cartagena, after having been built at the La Carraca shipyards in San Fernando, commissioned by the Spanish Navy. Peral put forward his project for a submersible torpedo boat in 1885. With a steel, spindle-shaped hull, it had a torpedo tube at the bow, a maximum diving depth of 30 metres and two electric propellers, with an endurance of 66 hours and a range of 284 nautical miles. It passed three night-attack drills, but was detected during daytime tests and did not meet the required endurance criteria; even so, Peral was awarded the Naval Merit Medal for the danger he had faced.
Monument
The birthplace of the inventor Isaac Peral in Cartagena, turned into a museum about his life and the creation of the electric submarine.
Monument
A Modernista shopping arcade of 1891 entered from Calle Puertas de Murcia and opening onto Calle Morería, which originally kept an iron and glass roof.
Monument
A Modernista building of 1903 by the architect Víctor Beltrí, popularly known as Casa Tárraga.
Monument
The Casa Maestre is a Modernist residential building erected in 1906 on the Plaza de San Francisco in Cartagena, commissioned by the businessman and politician José Maestre Pérez from the architect Marceliano Coquillat, with Víctor Beltrí overseeing the work. Its stone façade, with a central axis and ternary rhythm, stands out for its curvilinear bay window and its Neo-Rococo main door. The Maestre family kept the house until the Civil War, when it was seized and turned into the headquarters of the Communist Party; returned after the conflict, the post-war crisis forced its sale in 1940 to the Banco Hispano Americano, which emptied its interior except for the original staircase, the stained-glass windows and a room on the first floor. It has been declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 2024.
Monument
MURAM (Museo Regional de Arte Moderno, the Regional Museum of Modern Art) is a museum of 19th- and 20th-century art in Cartagena (Murcia), opened on 29 April 2009 next to the Aguirre Palace, with works by artists such as Rodin, Dalí, Tàpies and Chillida. It occupies a Modernist-style building restored by the architect Martín Lejárraga, on the Plaza de la Merced. It opened with a temporary exhibition devoted to the sculptor Auguste Rodin and today houses only temporary shows, awaiting an extension that will house the Marifí Plazas collection of Spanish avant-garde art. Admission is free and it opens Tuesday to Saturday, and Sunday mornings.
Curiosity
A former Protestant cemetery founded in 1846 by the British consul C. W. Turner, which disappeared in 1985 when its remains were moved to the cemetery of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.
Curiosity
Tallante is a pedanía in the north-west of Cartagena, in the Campo de Cartagena, situated some 17 kilometres from the urban centre and at around 170 metres of altitude. The place name already appears in 1559 in references to agricultural activities, and in 1561 it had thirteen landowners who had built fortified houses, on lands that a royal ruling (Real Ejecutoria) had awarded to Cartagena in 1532 after a dispute with Murcia. Its traditional economy revolved around herding and the gathering of wild produce, such as the kermes of the mastic-tree scrub. It today comprises several settlements, among them Collado de Tallante and Ermita de Tallante. Its parish church, dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua and documented since 1803, holds the venerated image of the Virgen de la Luz.
Activity
A traditional pilgrimage festival held at El Cañar de Tallante in honour of the Virgen de la Luz.
Curiosity
The two great historic brotherhoods of the Semana Santa of Cartagena, the Marraja (founded in 1542) and the California (1747), whose centuries-old rivalry over the splendour of their processions, purple and crimson respectively, defines the character of the festival.
Nature
A protected natural area to the west of Cartagena, extending as far as the Bay of Mazarrón as part of the city's coastal mountain range, with coves such as El Portús and remains of old coastal batteries around Cabo Tiñoso. It covers 11,361 hectares between Monte Roldán, Puntal del Moco, the Sierra de la Muela, Cabo Tiñoso, Peñas Blancas and La Azohía, as far as Isla Plana, already on the boundary with Mazarrón; it is designated a Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA) and a Site of Community Importance (SCI) within the Natura 2000 Network for its ecological importance to the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, although its Natural Resources Management Plan has still not been approved since 2006. In 2008 military manoeuvres caused a fire on Monte Roldán, and in 2012 another fire affected the eastern side of the Sierra de la Muela.
Nature
Cala Cortina, in the district of Santa Lucía, is the beach closest to the port and to the historic centre of Cartagena, reached by skirting the port and going through a tunnel, along a route that also serves as a promenade with views over the natural harbour surrounded by cliffs and mountains. It is a sandy beach, with a small natural islet a few metres from the shore and rocky areas where fishing and diving are practised; it has a seafront promenade, a children's play area, sunbeds, parasols and a restaurant, facilities that were expanded in an improvement programme begun in April 1998. In 2019 it was chosen the second-best beach in Spain by readers of the magazine Condé Nast Traveler.
Nature
The Sierra de la Fausilla is a 791-hectare natural area located to the east of Cartagena, in the surroundings of the Bay of Escombreras, and it stretches parallel to the coast between the former Punta de los Aguilones and the cove of El Gorguel. It has viewpoints over the bay and port of Cartagena and has notable ecological value, for which it is designated a Special Protection Area for Birds and a Site of Community Importance within the Natura 2000 Network. Most of its territory belongs to the company Repsol, although Iberdrola and various public administrations also hold properties on the range.
Curiosity
El Algar, a pedanía of Cartagena, saw its houses grow richer with the 19th-century mining boom of the Sierra de Cartagena-La Unión, which left standing grand buildings such as the Casa Rubio and the Teatro Apolo, also known as the Teatro Circo Apolo. The latter is a Modernist work designed in 1905 by the architect Pedro Cerdán and opened on 4 January 1907; it retains a hand-painted stage curtain and, protected as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 1998, it was restored between the late 1990s and 2009 after a long period of deterioration.
Monument
The Casa Rubio de El Algar, in Cartagena, is a two-storey manor house with an attic, built in 1895 by an owner enriched by the mining of the Sierra de Cartagena-La Unión. It stands in the urban centre of the district, where, despite being somewhat hidden by neighbouring buildings, it makes a strong visual impact, especially since its restoration.
Monument
A theatre built in 1905 in El Algar, reflecting the period of economic prosperity the pedanía enjoyed during the mining boom. Also known as the Teatro Circo Apolo, it is a Modernist work designed by the architect Pedro Cerdán, opened on 4 January 1907. It is an Italian-style theatre, with stalls and boxes, which retains a recently restored hand-painted stage curtain. After years of poor conservation, in the late 1990s the Dirección General de Bellas Artes de la Región de Murcia (the region's Directorate-General for Fine Arts) began a restoration process that was completed in 2009. It has been protected as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 1998.
Monument
The Museo de Carruajes y Motocicletas Zamar (Zamar Carriage and Motorcycle Museum) is a private museum devoted to transport, located in the Cartagena pedanía of El Algar (Murcia), with a large collection of carriages and motorcycles from the 17th century to the present day. It grew out of the passion of the owners of the Zamar stud farm, devoted to breeding purebred Spanish horses, who gradually gathered carriages on their estate until deciding to put them on display, later joined by their passion for classic motorcycles, some rescued from scrapyards and restored. Housed in a former industrial warehouse, it is organised into four areas: the carriages, classified by use — for people, for cargo, for pilgrimages, for noble use —, the farming tools of the Campo de Cartagena, the vintage motorcycles, and the museum shop.
Curiosity
Los Belones is a pedanía of the municipality of Cartagena, situated in the Campo de Cartagena and very close to the Mar Menor, alongside places such as Islas Menores, Mar de Cristal and Los Nietos; Cabo de Palos and La Manga are little more than ten minutes away by road, which has led it to be known as “the crossroads.” Its name comes from the Alicante-born brothers José and Manuel Bellón, regarded as its founders, both of whom died in the yellow fever epidemic that devastated the district in 1804. The climate is dry Mediterranean, with hot summers and mild winters, and scant rainfall concentrated in spring and autumn, which in September and October can turn torrential owing to the cold drop (gota fría) weather phenomenon. It is crossed by the rambla de la Carrasquilla, which rises near Atamaría and flows out next to Los Nietos.
Historical milestone
Qart Hadasht, "new city" in Punic, was founded by the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal the Fair in 227 BC on the bay where Cartagena stands today, although it is likely that it was not built on empty ground but rather refounded an earlier settlement, perhaps the Tartessian Mastia mentioned by classical sources. It became the capital of the Barcid dominions in Iberia and the main Carthaginian base of operations, with the region's silver mines financing the army. From here Hannibal set out in 218 BC with his elephants for Italy. In 209 BC the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio besieged the city and conquered it, a decisive step toward the end of Punic rule in the south of the peninsula, and from then on it came to be called Carthago Nova.
Historical milestone
Publius Cornelius Scipio stormed by surprise in 209 BC the Punic capital in the Second Punic War, taking advantage of the low level of the lagoon to attack from an unguarded flank; with the city fell Carthage's treasury and its Iberian hostages.
Historical milestone
Justinian's troops landed in the southeast of the peninsula in the year 552 and made the city the capital of the imperial province of Spania; Byzantine rule ended when the Visigoths took and razed it shortly afterwards.
Historical milestone
José Patiño's plan approved by Philip V in 1726 divided the Spanish coast into three maritime departments and designated Cartagena head of the Mediterranean one, a decision that brought with it the arsenal and completely transformed the city in the 18th century.
Historical milestone
The sailor, scientist and inventor Isaac Peral y Caballero was born in Cartagena on 1 June 1851, a lieutenant of the Navy and creator of the first fully functional electrically propelled torpedo submarine, known as the Peral submarine. In 1885 he informed his superiors that he had solved the challenge of underwater navigation, a project approved by the Navy's scientists, though he met with indifference and hostility from successive ministers of the Navy. With the support of the regent queen María Cristina, the submarine was launched in 1888 and, despite passing its trials, the authorities discarded it; a smear campaign forced Peral to request his discharge. The hull of his vessel is preserved today in his home city after decades of official neglect.
Historical milestone
Within the framework of the First Spanish Republic, the intransigent federalists raised the red flag over the Castillo de San Julián in 1873 and proclaimed the canton with the aim of turning the Region of Murcia into a federal state, as part of a project that envisaged Spain divided into different states. It was the longest-lasting of all the cantons raised in Spain, withstanding the siege of the central government's forces until 12 January 1874, with measures that bore similarities to those adopted in the Paris Commune of 1871. The surrender left more than three hundred buildings destroyed and only twenty-seven intact in the whole city.
Historical milestone
A shot from the coastal battery of La Parajola hit in 1939 the magazine of the rebel ship that was trying to take the naval base; of the more than two thousand men on board, some one thousand four hundred died, the greatest shipwreck in the history of Spain.
Food and drink
The asiático is a 20th-century coffee drink originating in Cartagena, widely consumed in the Campo de Cartagena and in the rest of the Region of Murcia. It is served in a thick glass cup whose shape sets the proportion of the ingredients: coffee, condensed milk and brandy, to which some variants add Licor 43, lemon zest, cinnamon and coffee beans. Its origin is attributed to Pedro Conesa Ortega, who in 1947 is said to have devised it in his bar in El Albujón by mixing the carajillo with the belmonte, although a 2019 book documents the drink in Cartagena years earlier. Its name is thought to have replaced that of ruso (Russian) because of its political connotations during the Franco era. Since 2011 the Ruta del Asiático has been held, with venues offering their versions at a fixed price.
Food and drink
Rice cooked in the broth of the rockfish that did not sell at the market, with ñora and garlic; it is served in two servings, first the rice with allioli and then the fish, and it sums up the thrifty cooking of the bay's sailors.
Food and drink
A winter stew of dried broad beans soaked for 48 hours and cooked for a long time with ham, chorizo, pork belly, bay leaf and chilli; it is eaten very hot and with plenty of broth, and is one of the most common tapas on the bar counters of Cartagena. The Campo de Cartagena variety is also made with potatoes, served with alioli. Its name may come from the Arabic misrun, or from the Catalan menjar, to eat, according to different hypotheses. It was traditionally prepared by country people with long-keeping ingredients when fresh produce was scarce, and it remains common today among Cartagena families at birthday and christening celebrations.