September 2021 - CARTAGENA EXPERIENCE

Cartagena Modern Art Museum

We invite you to read our guide for a tour of Cartagena and you will see that it is not just meeting beautiful women, Cartagena offers more than that, this is a city rich in culture due to its history. In this article I invite you to visit the Museum of Modern Art.

The Museum is located in the Historic Center, in Plaza San Pedro Claver, with the San Ignacio bastion to one side, and is one of the few covered public spaces that Cartagena and visitors to the walled city can enjoy.

It has an inventory of more than 400 works, most of them from coastal artists. It adopts its institutional framework in 1972 thanks to Enrique Grau and Alejandro Obregón, however it is in 1979 when it is assumed as the opening date because it is the year in which it opens to the public at its current headquarters. It houses the works of its local founders, Enrique Grau, Alejandro Obregón, Cecilia Porras and Hernando Lemaitre.

NH Gallery | Places of Cartagena

Cartagena has beautiful places for all tastes, and that is why this city receives thousands of people every year, who are looking for a break from their daily life, who like adventure, or are simply tired of Las Vegas and come to the walled city. for your bachelor party.

For those who love art and want to see something different, here we will tell you about a special place to come and appreciate art, it is NH Gallery.

NH gallery specializes in Colombian and international contemporary art, both by established and emerging artists. When you visit it, you will find works by representative figures, such as Ruby Rumié, Adriana Marmorek, Álvaro Barrios, Niki de Saint Phalle, Sophia Vari, Lesley Dill and Adam Straus, among others. NH Galería works in conjunction with the Nohra Haime Gallery in New York, creating a link that enriches international cultural exchange, through disciplines such as photography, painting, installation, video, and sculpture. They also dedicate a segment to the secondary art market of the 20th and 21st centuries.

So now you know, if you are looking for a different place to visit in Cartagena, the NH Art Gallery is one of the best options in beautiful Cartagena.

Bolivar Plaza

Bolivar plaza. This typical Spanish-style plaza, tinged with

tropical vegetation, was during the Colony the heart of Cartagena de Indias. It was called Plaza de la Inquisición until November 11, 1896 when the center of the square was adorned with the statue of El Libertador Simón Bolívar in honor of him. This urban space is an emblematic site of the city, loaded with historical and cultural symbolism.

The first name it received was Plaza de la Catedral, since it adjoins the main temple in Cartagena. Then in 1610, when the Court of the Inquisition was established in Cartagena by Royal Decree of King Felipe III, it adopted the name of Plaza de la Inquisición, since it was the scene of the first Auto de Fe or sentence for heresy ordered on February 2 of 1614 by the inquisitors Juan de Mañozca and Pedro Mateo de Salcedo.

For the year 1890, the organizing board of the commemorative festivities of the Independence of Cartagena arranged that the bullfights take place in said square. But with no fences, the idea became a public danger. In fact, the determination was revoked after a bull charged a citizen, who, emboldened, challenged the fighting animal.

Later, on November 11, 1896, the equestrian statue of “the Liberator” Simón Bolívar was inaugurated in the middle of the square. Then the Cabildo decided to change the shadowy name of the Inquisition to Plaza or Parque de Bolívar.

This square is framed by the Palace of the Inquisition, the cathedral and the town hall (today the Government of Bolívar), that is, by the most important institutions that the city had in colonial times. Currently, they also share its framework, the Banco de la República and the Cartagena Gold Museum.

It has green and paved areas, has a variety of trees, within its furniture it has benches, water fountains, and other typical elements found in a public space like this.

Today, this Plaza de Bolívar is a gathering place for the people of Cartagena and long games of chess, which are played under the shade of its leafy trees.