Ruta El Legado de 'El Getsemanicense'
Ruta El Legado de 'El Getsemanicense'
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Consider this: Spanish Empire regulations stated that to found an important city, it should be located on elevated ground, with nearby potable water, ample surrounding agricultural land, and a safe port. Of all these requirements, Cartagena only met the last one. That is how suitable, important, and strategic this inner bay was. And most of it was situated over Getsemaní, particularly over Arsenal. This character marked that coastal strip from its inception.
CALLE ARSENAL – PART 1
Speaking of Calle Arsenal necessarily involves discussing the port, the Naval Station, the beach area, the city walls, the Public Market, and many other things. It is a street with a rich history that is not immediately apparent to those who walk it today.
CALLE ARSENAL – PART 2
On the Arsenal side, there were three bastions, of which only one remains standing: the Bastion of San Lorenzo, or as we know it today, El Reducto. The other two were the Bastion of Santa Isabel, which protruded from the straight line of fortification and whose foundations are partially submerged in the bay waters; and the Bastion of Barahona, at the corner facing the city center, where part of the old Public Market was built and which now houses the Convention Center.
ROCKY VALDEZ: THE MARKET’S PUNCHES
In the early 1970s, Colombia was still reminiscing about the 4-4 draw against the Soviet Union in the 1962 World Cup. In the Andean region, the world record for the hour set by 'Cochise' Rodríguez in 1970 and his world championship in 4,000 meters individual pursuit in 1971 were still fresh. In Cartagena, of course, it was inevitable to remember the amateur baseball world series of 1947 and 1965, in which we played as locals and were essentially Caribbean and Central American championships.
EL REDUCTO: PROTECTOR OF CARTAGENA
At the end of Calle Arsenal and at the beginning of the Román Bridge, there is a defensive structure that now appears peaceful and quite photogenic at sunset. But during the Colonial era, it was a respectable military structure and the bastion for defending the city from the entrance to the inner bay.
PUBLIC MARKET: THE END OF AN ERA
A community’s heritage is not only material, like walls, buildings, or architectural landmarks. Heritage is also, and perhaps more importantly, intangible and cultural: the language we speak, what we eat, games, social life, and the myths and rites with which we relate to the world.
OLD PUBLIC MARKET
The public market, so essential to the neighborhood’s life, began as a much more elegant and visually appealing space than what is known of its end in 1978, when it had spread to the surrounding streets, served a city about ten times larger, and created a traffic and pedestrian bottleneck.
CALLE DEL ARSENAL
Bordering the Bay of Souls, this street was part of the public market of Getsemaní. Gabriel García Márquez frequented the restaurants, bars, and shops found in this area, where he would meet with friends and strangers. The conversations and stories he encountered inspired scenes in his novels Of Love and Other Demons and Love in the Time of Cholera. Del amor y otros demonios y El amor en los tiempos del cólera.
CARTAGENA DE INDIAS CONVENTION CENTER
Built in the late 1970s. The site of the tribute to Gabriel García Márquez and One Hundred Years of Solitudeat the IV International Congress of the Spanish Language in 2007. This location was once the city’s public market, a place frequented by Gabo and the source of many anecdotes.
BAHÍA DE LAS ÁNIMAS
Next to the Getsemaní public market, it was a place where Gabriel García Márquez experienced numerous events that inspired scenes in his books. In his article Un domingo de delirio (A Sunday of Delirium), published on March 9, 1981, in El País (Spain), he described this place as nostalgic and vibrant, where sailors, vendors, and drunks would gather.
Talking about Arsenal Street necessarily means talking about the port, the docks, the sandbank, the wall, the public market and many other things (...)
A whole book could be written about Larga Street. It has more than four centuries of history and together with Media Luna Street, they were the basis for the layout of the streets of Getsemaní (...)
San Juan Evangelista Street is one of the few that still retains its colonial name. When it was paved around 1967, many items such as weapons and pellets were found during excavation work (...)
A memory in a scent. This is how the older people in the neighborhood remember San Antonio Street: the carts of pellets that left the Imperial Bakery at four in the morning to supply so many places in the city (...)
The name of the street is clear: at the end, near the bay of Las Ánimas, was the waterhole of the Navy (...)
Its full name is Calle Nuestra Señora de las Palmas Benditas because, it is said, its first residents were very devoted to that devotion of the Virgin Mary (...)
It is said that during colonial times, fishermen left their wet flip-flops on the sidewalk to dry in the sun while they worked (...)
Pozo Street has almost as much history as the neighborhood. From its small square, the lancers marched towards the center in 1811 to tip the balance in favor of declaring total independence from Spain (...)
One of the streets with the highest number of residents per square meter, here you can experience neighborhood life like no other (...)
Together with the Angosto alley, they are among the blocks with the most neighborhood life in Getsemaní (...)
What a street like Carretero to be in the heart of Getsemaní! Not only because it leads to the Plaza de la Trinidad, but also because of the neighbors and people who lived there before and who still live there (...)
Little is known about the name. It comes from the Colony and traces point to the region of León, in present-day Spain (...)
The origin of this street dates back to 1603, when the Order of Saint John of God created a hospital called the Holy Spirit, on land adjacent to the current Hermitage of San Roque (...)
Talking about Media Luna Street is placing ourselves in a reference par excellence that the Getsemaní neighborhood has (...)
We must begin by correcting a misunderstanding: it is not Guerrero Street, but Guerrero Street (...)
The presence of the Obra Pía, built between 1640 and 1650, has gravitated around this street. It occupies a good part of the block and its front faces Media Luna Street (...)
This short street has a very long history. From being one of the least valued streets, it became a large neighbourhood centre and now, a commercial and transit hub between the Centre and the rest of Getsemaní (...)
It is one of the few that still maintains a name of Catholic origin, as did almost all the streets and landmarks in cities founded by Spaniards (...)
Both streets have had various names, almost all of them more common or 'formal', so to speak. But those that have survived are the popular ones, which are perhaps signs of a modest origin. (...)
Popularly, it was also called the street of the Goats, because there was always someone who said something or something happened to a neighbor and everyone came out to defend him (...)
There is no consensus on the origin of its name. Sierpe means “snake” in old Spanish and it is one of the few streets that has kept its original name since the Colonial period (...)
On Turtle Street, the houses were attached to the San Anastasio Canal. Its inhabitants placed mangrove stakes with which they kept confined the four species of turtles that the fishermen brought from other places through the Juan Angola Canal (...)
Many people remember that the monument to the Botas Viejas was originally erected there. Today it is the place where pelota de trapo, the traditional sport of the neighbourhood, is played.
The name Plaza de la Trinidad was given to it in 1643, the year in which the church was completed.
Source: (NotiCartagena)
Its design is based on a French-style park; with an almost quadrangular shape, the park is surrounded by a perimeter fence and eight entrances decorated with an arch.
Source: (El Universal Newspaper)
The arrival of the Hotel San Francisco, operated by Four Seasons, allows Getsemaní to open up to luxury tourism, elevating Cartagena's name as a world-class tourist destination.
Source: (Iriante, 2022)
This square was the place where the people gathered to celebrate popular festivals, in which floats were used and the most beautiful girls paraded.
Source: NotiCartagena
The two streets that border Centenario Park between Media Luna and the old San Felipe hotel have many stories to tell. Today they are an avenue and, on the park side, an informal parking lot and a taxi station.(...)
The Cartagena de Indias Convention Center was created as a project by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism in 1978, as a mechanism to generate regional development hubs through the implementation of broad-based activities, such as congresses, events and conventions. It was designed by the firm Esguerra, Sáenz and Samper Ltda. and built by the Cartagena firm Civilco.
Source: Convention Center - Cartagena de Indias
It was the last flank of the neighborhood to be closed. It was so recently that many Getsemaní residents remember it as the baseball and soccer field of their childhood. (...)
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