Cartagena

Cartagena is a municipality and port city in southeastern Spain. The municipality is located in the region of Murcia and, in addition to a commercial port and fishing, there is a large naval base. There are 214,802 inhabitants living in the city. Along with the city of Murcia, Cartagena is the provincial capital and shared regional capital. Cartagena is a chapter in itself and for several reasons, well worth a visit.

 

The city and the history

There is plenty of cultural heritage to see. Museo Arqueológico Municipal de Cartagena, Casa de la Fortuna and Augusteum, to Castillo de la Concepción, Santo Domingo Church and Museo Refugio de la Guerra Civil. Buildings such as Casa Maestre, Palacio Consistorial and Casa Cervantes with balconies that are typical of Cartagena. There are often large luxury cruisers at the far end of the harbor and you can take a sailing trip with a catamaran. There is a lot of marble to walk on in Cartagena and they seem quite careful with their siesta 14-17. It is not a good time if you want to visit shops.

 

Bath

When you come towards the city on Road 332, you keep left on CT-33, then you come up on road N-343. Up on it, you have a view of the entire harbor area, down to the right. After a short passage through a car tunnel, the car park appears above what we call the "stone beach" but which is actually called Cala Cortina. A nice little swimming spot just outside the center of Cartagena. Sometimes people in vests appear and charge for parking - as far as we know, however, it's free. Here the water is healthy and fresh, except if there has been a storm straight into the bay.

 

Text & image: Måns Löfgren, SkyBlueMedia