On the Plaza de la Proclamación, at the corner of Calle Santos de Piedra, near Plaza Bolívar, the cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria is the main religious building of the walled city of Cartagena de Indias, in Colombia. A design competition held in 1575 was won by the drawing of Simón González, appointed obrero mayor (master builder), and work continued between 1577 and 1612, replacing an earlier, more modest church of wood and cane. In 1586 the fleet of the English privateer Francis Drake, up to twenty-three warships and over three thousand men according to the sources, plundered half the city and hit the still unfinished cathedral with cannon fire, damaging its central nave; the sources differ slightly on the exact details of the structural damage. The city then paid a ransom, reported as one hundred and ten thousand silver ducats, to end a siege that lasted about six weeks, and the completion of the building was consequently postponed until 1612. In 1908 the façade and the dome were remade by the French architect Gastón Lelarge, commissioned by Archbishop Pedro Adán Brioschi, born in Milan in 1860 and archbishop of Cartagena from 1900 to 1943, not an architect as is sometimes wrongly reported, in an intervention that according to some Spanish-language sources controversially altered the original colonial architectural fabric. Cartagena was one of the main ports authorised by the Spanish crown for the slave trade from 1615, becoming in the seventeenth century the main market of enslaved people in the Spanish Americas, with a population of African origin estimated at 72.5 per cent in 1777: a historical context of the city as a whole, for which no source documents a specific link with the cathedral building. The Jesuit St. Peter Claver, who for about forty years from 1622 personally assisted enslaved people on their arrival in the port of Cartagena, is buried not in the cathedral but in the separate church dedicated to him, about two hundred and twenty metres away according to a calculation from coordinates, not a figure given directly by the sources. The figure of three hundred thousand baptisms sometimes attributed to Claver is widely repeated but flagged by some sources as probably overestimated. The cathedral forms part of the UNESCO site “Port, Fortresses and Monuments of Cartagena”, inscribed in 1984.
About the Cathedral
The Cathedral of Cartagena, on Plaza de la Proclamación near Plaza Bolívar in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, is the principal religious building of the historic walled city, built 1577–1612 to a design by Simón González, its completion delayed by Francis Drake’s 1586 attack on the city.
Key facts
- 1575: Simón González wins the design competition and is named master builder.
- 1577–1612: cathedral built, completion delayed by damage from Francis Drake’s 1586 attack on Cartagena.
- 1586: Drake’s fleet sacks half the city and holds it for a ransom reported at 110,000 silver ducats.
- 1908: facade and dome refaced by French architect Gastón Lelarge, commissioned by Archbishop Pedro Adán Brioschi.
- 1984: the cathedral becomes part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments, Cartagena”
- Saint Peter Claver, who ministered to enslaved people arriving in Cartagena’s port from 1622, is buried in a separate church roughly 220 metres away, not in the cathedral.
History
Begun in 1577 to replace an earlier wooden church, the cathedral’s construction was interrupted by Francis Drake’s 1586 siege of Cartagena, which damaged the unfinished building with cannon fire and delayed completion until 1612. Refaced in 1908 by a French architect under a Milan-born archbishop, the cathedral stands in a walled port city that was, for over a century, one of Spanish America’s principal points of entry for the Atlantic slave trade — a history most directly commemorated not at the cathedral but at the nearby church of Saint Peter Claver, the Jesuit priest who ministered to enslaved arrivals for four decades.
What you see
An ochre-colored colonial stone facade with a pink-and-white domed bell tower and an arched masonry portal, its current appearance shaped largely by the 1908 refacing carried out under French architect Gastón Lelarge.
Practical information
- Opening hours: generally open daily outside services; check current hours before visiting.
- Address: Plaza de la Proclamación at Calle Santos de Piedra, walled city, Cartagena, Colombia.
Getting there
The cathedral stands near Plaza Bolívar in Cartagena’s historic walled center. GPS: 10.4236°N, 75.5510°W.
Nearby
- Iglesia de San Pedro Claver — the church and burial place of Saint Peter Claver, roughly 220 metres away.
- Plaza Bolívar — Cartagena’s central colonial-era plaza.
Sources
- Wikipedia (English and Spanish) — “Cartagena Cathedral,” “Slavery in Cartagena,” “Peter Claver”
- Instituto Cervantes (cvc.cervantes.es) — cathedral construction history.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — “Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments, Cartagena”
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