A Week on the Costa Blanca, Part 2 Cartagena

Last Updated on August 2, 2017 by lydiaf1963

While technically not part of the Costa Blanca, Cartagena is an ancient port with archeological sites dating back to the Carthaginians. After a couple days in Torrevieja we headed to the city of Cartagena. It’s located in the province of Murcia, about a 40 minute drive. We spent a pleasant day wandering around the historic district and exploring the ancient Roman theater.

Cartagena is called the Port of Cultures for good reason. Over its 3000 year history, and excepting the Ibero-Celts of Northern Spain, every major cultural group in Spain’s history has held the port at one time or another…Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Visigoths and Moors alike have sheltered their fleets in the harbor which continues to serve the Spanish Navy and Coast Guard as well as being a major port of call for the cruise industry.

The city itself is a charming amalgam of the ancient and the modern with ruins dating back to the Punic wars side by side with Art Nouveau buildings. Perhaps the best example of this is the Museum of the Roman Theater. The theater itself dates back to the First Century BCE and over the centuries served as a theater, market and residential district. Excavation began in the 1980s and by 2008 the museum was completed.

We didn’t know the museum existed until we tried to gain access to the theater. The guard directed us to the museum entrance, which is a marvel in itself. You start out in a converted palacio then walk through a beautiful modern exhibition space where you’ll learn the history of the theater and the excavations. Guests are guided through a tunnel which runs underneath the remains of an old cathedral destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. From there you’ll enter the theater itself where, except for a few off limits areas, you can explore and climb to your heart’s content. (Take a virtual tour here, the website is almost as impressive as the museum!)

The highest portions of the theater overlook the sparkling harbor with more Art Nouveau buildings, shops and restaurants. From the overlook you can get of good view of the old fortifications on the hill tops surrounding the city.

The historic town center is especially charming. There’s a pedestrian area paved with huge stone slabs and loads of shops and places to eat. We took advantage of the Menú del Día and had a nice meal at a small restaurant tucked in a small plaza away from the crowds.

Cartagena proper has over 200,000 residents with twice that in the surrounding area. In addition to the historic and archeological sites and  a dozen museums, there are beaches and parks to visit along with numerous activities on the water, including boat tours of the harbor and bay. A day isn’t enough to see and do everything we would have liked. For our next trip to the area we’ll make Cartagena our base for explorations.

Photo Credit for panoramic photo of the theater used in the title: By Trasamundo (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons