Free Walking Tour Cartagena: Roman Ruins to the Castle

Your Cartagena Walking Tour, Stop by Stop, from Modernism to Carthago Nova

1. 1

   Cartagena Town Hall

   

   Cartagena Town Hall is a building you read from the outside first. It stands on a triangular plan, its façade is faced entirely in white marble, and zinc domes crown the roof. Walk around it and look for two emblems that repeat again and again: the Castillo de la Concepción from the city's coat of arms, and the mural crown granted by the Roman general Scipio Africanus when he took Carthago Nova. Both point ahead on this walk, to the Roman city under your feet and to the castle where it ends.

   The palace went up between 1900 and 1907, when Cartagena was booming and its 16th century town hall in the sober Herrerian style had become too small. The new building rose on the same plot, designed by Tomás Rico Valarino, an architect from Valladolid. Keep his name in mind: you meet him again at the Gran Hotel.

   Its splendour nearly did not last. The palace stands on unstable land reclaimed from the sea, and weak foundations caused serious structural damage until it was closed in 1995. Legal disputes with the contractor then held up the restoration for eleven years; only in 2006 was the work finished, and the façade you see now is the result.

   Inside, the ground-floor lobby and exhibition halls are free. Look for the cast-iron columns and lamps and the portraits of notable Cartagena figures painted since the 18th century. The council chamber and the mayor's office are also in the building; if you want more than the ground floor, the guided tour suits architecture fans, otherwise a quarter of an hour in the lobby is enough.

   From here it is 530 metres, about 7 minutes on foot, to Barrio del Foro Romano and the Roman street behind those city emblems.

   Local name

   Palacio consistorial de Cartagena

   Hours

   Tue–Fri 10:30–13:30 & 17:00–19:00, Sat 10:30–13:30 & 17:00–20:00, Sun & holidays 10:00–13:30, Mon closed

   Price

   1 EUR (guided tour); Free (ground-floor lobby & exhibition halls)

   Website

   cartagena.es ↗

   Location

   Cartagena Town Hall on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Barrio del Foro Romano

   

   Barrio del Foro Romano puts you on a real Roman street. Under today's Plaza de los Tres Reyes runs a stretch of paved decumanus, one of the main streets of Carthago Nova: a colonnaded shopping street that connected the forum with the port. For a while it was taken for the city's Decumanus Maximus; that idea has since been ruled out, but it remains one of the principal streets of the Roman town.

   The street plan dates from the 1st century, yet the paving you see belongs to a large rebuilding of the 4th century, after Emperor Diocletian made Carthago Nova capital of the province of Carthaginensis. On the road surface, look for the remains of a late imperial gate that once closed the way from the port into the city.

   From the decumanus you entered two large buildings. One, with an atrium, has been identified as the seat of a collegium, a Roman association. The other is a bath complex on the south slope of Molinete hill, the Arx Asdrubalis, along today's calle Honda. It had hot rooms (caldarium), cold rooms (frigidarium), a sweat room (sudatio) and a palaestra for exercise. The baths seem to have stayed in use until the 4th century, with a rebuilding in the 3rd, while finds from the excavations range from the 1st to the 7th century.

   There is an entry fee, and it is well worth paying if Roman daily life interests you; allow about an hour, and do not leave it until just before closing.

   Then walk 320 metres, about 4 minutes, from Roman Cartagena to the club rooms of its 19th century elite at Casino de Cartagena.

   Hours

   High season (1 Jul–15 Sep): daily 10:00–20:00, except 1–15 Jul Tue–Sun | Mid season (15 Mar–30 Jun; 16 Sep–1 Nov): Tue–Sun 10:00–19:00, Holy Week daily | Low season (2 Nov–14 Mar): Tue–Sun 10:00–17:30 | Closed 1 & 6 Jan and 25 Dec; closed afternoons 5 Jan and 24 & 31 Dec; last admission 30 min before closing

   Price

   7 EUR general, 6 EUR reduced (under-12, students up to 25, youth card, unemployed, seniors 65+, disabled, large families)

   Website

   puertodeculturas.cartagena.es ↗

   Location

   Barrio del Foro Romano on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Casino de Cartagena

   

   Despite the name, Casino de Cartagena is a private club, founded in the first half of the 19th century like the many casinos and cultural circles of that era. The first references date from 1836, when it was still called Círculo Cartagenero. Its members traditionally came from 'good society'; in recent decades it has opened to people of every background who share an interest in culture and leisure.

   The club rented its present home in 1853 and bought it in 1890: the 18th century palace of the Marqués de Casa Tilly on calle Mayor, reworked at the end of the 19th century for club life. Its story starts in 1762, when Francisco Javier Everardo-Tilly, then a navy captain, bought a palace house from the Count of Fernán Núñez. He added two large neighbouring houses, two smaller ones and a warehouse, paid 100,000 reales, and had master builder Antonio Barea raise a mansion fit for his rank. Local craftsmen even formed a company just to carry out the work.

   Today the club runs lectures, concerts, exhibitions, billiards, board games and fencing, some of them open to the public. You can walk into the ground-floor café and lobby for free and pay only for what you order; the guided tour suits anyone curious about the palace beyond the café. The Casino is open every day, with a break in the afternoon, so a coffee here works on any day of the week.

   The Gran Hotel is only 200 metres away, about 3 minutes on foot.

   Hours

   Daily 10:00–14:00 & 17:30–22:00

   Price

   3 EUR (guided tour); Free entry to ground floor café/lobby (consumption paid)

   Website

   casinodecartagena.org ↗

   Location

   Casino de Cartagena on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Gran Hotel Cartagena

   

   Gran Hotel Cartagena is a modernist building to enjoy from the street; the exterior is free to see at any hour. Check the weathervane first: its date, 1910, shows that the building stood, at least from outside, by then.

   The mining entrepreneur and merchant Celestino Martínez Vidal commissioned it from Tomás Rico Valarino, the architect of the Town Hall. Work started in 1907 under Rico, but once the building reached the mezzanine, Víctor Beltrí took over the project for the rest of it, and the hotel counts as his work. In January 1911, while the interior was still under way, Martínez Vidal died, and the works stalled while his children sorted out a complicated inheritance.

   The hotel finally opened on 29 February 1916 and was considered at the time one of the finest in Spain. Among its guests that very year was Wilhelm Canaris, a German naval officer then working as a spy during the First World War. In the Civil War of 1936 to 1939 it was expropriated and became the seat of the Unified Socialist Youth and the militia headquarters.

   Its survival was not a given. In November 1976, when the property company that had bought it looked set to demolish it, the Official College of Architects of Valencia and Murcia spoke out against the plan, and a month later protection proceedings began. In 2012 it was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural with monument status, and on 29 February 2016, exactly a hundred years after opening, it was reinaugurated to launch Cartagena's 'Year of Modernism'.

   From here it is 290 metres, about 4 minutes, to the Roman Theatre of Cartagena.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free (exterior)

   Website

   regmurcia.com ↗

   Location

   Gran Hotel Cartagena on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Roman Theatre of Cartagena

   

   The Roman Theatre of Cartagena is the reason many people come to the city. Built between 5 and 1 BCE, it held some 6,000 spectators. The Romans placed it with care: on the slope of a hill near the port, cut into the natural terrain, with the seating facing north and sheltered from the prevailing easterly winds, and far from the unhealthy lagoon at the other end of the city. Even the sky played a part: the building's main axis points to the sunrise at the winter solstice.

   That the theatre survived at all is thanks to the city on top of it. The district here never stopped being inhabited, so the stones stayed buried for centuries, while the area slowly became one of the most run-down corners of the old town. Excavations here also turned up remains of Cartagena's Arab settlement.

   Recovering the theatre grew from an archaeological dig into the engine that revived a large part of the city. Today the ruins sit among modern buildings, close to the Cathedral, the Town Hall, the medieval castle and the port facilities, with traffic and city life right next to them.

   Entry is paid, but if you only pay for one site on this walk, make it this one, and allow an hour and a quarter. Its hours are not the same every day, so plan your day around it.

   Then comes the longest leg: 1,750 metres, about 26 minutes, up to Castillo de la Concepción, passing Parque Torres on the way.

   Local name

   Teatro romano de Cartagena

   Hours

   Summer (May 1 – Sep 30 & Easter): Tue–Sat 10:00–20:00, Sun 10:00–14:00, Mon closed; Winter (Oct 1 – Apr 30): Tue–Sat 10:00–18:00, Sun 10:00–14:00, Mon closed

   Price

   7 EUR general, 6 EUR reduced (under-12, students up to 25, youth card, unemployed, seniors 65+, disabled, large families)

   Website

   teatroromanocartagena.org ↗

   Location

   Roman Theatre of Cartagena on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Castillo de la Concepción

   

   Castillo de la Concepción crowns the hill of the same name, rising over Cartagena and its port, and it is the castle you saw repeated on the Town Hall façade: the one in the city's coat of arms. Its present form is medieval, from the 13th or 14th century, but the hill holds older layers.

   According to the Greek historian Polybius, a temple to the god Aesculapius stood here in Roman times. The recent restoration revealed that the castle's first floor was built reusing Roman cisterns, which may belong to that temple or to a Byzantine building.

   For a long time Cartagena was thought to have almost vanished under Muslim rule. Arab texts show otherwise: the city mattered from the 10th century and especially in the 12th. Parts of the castle walls hide towers of a 12th century Muslim alcazaba, and the lantern that served as a lighthouse still stands from that period. Look for it when you are up there.

   The castle was long credited to Henry III of Castile in the 14th century. Recent research places it earlier: after the infante Alfonso X, later known as the Wise, conquered Cartagena in 1245, he restored the old bishopric and fortified the highest point of the city on top of the alcazaba. Cartagena was then Castile's only outlet to the Mediterranean, wedged between the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Granada.

   Entry is paid, but having walked this far, go in: this is where the tour ends and where the threads of the morning meet, from Roman cisterns to the Castilian frontier.

   Hours

   High season (Jul 1 – Sep 15): Mon–Sun 10:00–20:00 (Tue–Sun in early July); Mid season (Mar 15 – Jun 30 & Sep 16 – Nov 1): Tue–Sun 10:00–19:00; Low season (Nov 2 – Mar 14): Tue–Sun 10:00–17:30; Mon closed in mid/low season (except Easter)

   Price

   6 EUR general, 4.50 EUR reduced (under-12, students up to 25, youth card, unemployed, seniors 65+, disabled, large families)

   Website

   puertodeculturas.cartagena.es ↗

   Location

   Castillo de la Concepción on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways to Walk Cartagena

Not everyone has a full morning and early afternoon. Both shorter versions keep the same order and simply stop earlier or leave out the paid sites.

Roman Cartagena without the castle

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

For anyone short on time or not up for the long final leg. You cover 1,340 metres in about 18 minutes of walking and finish at the Roman Theatre of Cartagena. Entry costs come from Barrio del Foro Romano and the theatre only.

Free modernist façades

Stops: 1, 3, 4

For architecture fans on a budget, and the version that still works on a Monday, when you see the Town Hall only from outside. You walk about 14 minutes, passing Barrio del Foro Romano without going in, and pay for nothing except what you order in the Casino café.

How Long Does This Cartagena Tour Take with the Roman Sites?

The first four legs are short, none longer than 530 metres, so the old town part of the walk feels like moving from one doorway to the next. The real walking comes at the end: 1,750 metres, about 26 minutes, from the theatre up to the castle. In total that is 45 minutes of walking.

The time goes into the visits. Count roughly a quarter of an hour in the Town Hall lobby, an hour at Barrio del Foro Romano, 20 minutes at the Casino, a few minutes in front of the Gran Hotel, an hour and a quarter in the Roman Theatre and 45 minutes at the castle. Starting at 10:30, you reach the theatre around 12:30, the castle around 14:10 and finish before 15:00.

The Roman version without the castle takes a little over three hours; the free façade walk fits into about an hour.

Before You Set Off from the Town Hall

• Start and end: The suggested order starts at Cartagena Town Hall and ends up at Castillo de la Concepción, not back where you began. You can join at any stop.
• Best days: Pick your day with care: the Town Hall and the paid sites do not all open every day, and on Sundays some of them close early.
• Time of day: Start in the morning, once the Town Hall, the Roman sites and the castle have opened.
• Costs: Barrio del Foro Romano, the Roman Theatre and the castle charge admission, with reduced tickets available. Optional extras are the guided tours of the Town Hall and the Casino.

Common Questions about Visiting Cartagena's Sights