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Rang

Walled city of balconies

Cartagena

A Caribbean port inside thick walls, with houses in ochre, blue and pink and balconies heavy with flowers.

View of Cartagena from Convent of Santa Cruz de la Popa, Colombia
Photo: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Cartagena is colonial ochre

Cartagena de Indias, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, was one of the main ports of the Spanish empire and a centre of the slave trade. Kilometres of walls and forts were built to protect it. Inside, the streets are lined with two-storey houses painted ochre, yellow, deep blue, pink and terracotta, with wooden balconies overhung by bougainvillea. The neighbouring district of Getsemaní is known for murals and for streets shaded by coloured umbrellas and flags. In the squares, women from the town of San Basilio de Palenque, founded by people who escaped slavery, sell fruit in dresses of yellow, blue and red. The port, fortresses and monuments have been a World Heritage Site since 1984.

Colonial ochre#E3A03CCobalt blue#2F5FC2Bougainvillea pink#D6337ACoral stone grey#A8A096Caribbean turquoise#3FB5B0

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Cartagena

OchreA natural earth pigment ranging from yellow to deep orange or brown
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Cartagena, Colombia" on Wikipedia. If you know Cartagena and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

All colour cities
🇨🇴 Town of the painted panelsGuatapéEvery house in this Colombian lakeside town has a band of painted relief pictures along the foot of its walls.🇨🇴 The river of five coloursCaño CristalesA clear river in Colombia whose bed turns bright red for a few months each year.🇮🇳 City of saffron and lightVaranasiSaffron robes, marigold garlands and oil lamps colour the river steps of one of the oldest living cities.🇮🇳 The Orange CityNagpurA city in central India named for a fruit: the loose-skinned Nagpur orange grown in the country around it.🇱🇦 Town of saffron robesLuang PrabangAt dawn lines of monks in orange robes walk the streets of the old Lao royal capital to receive alms.🇳🇦 The red dunes of the NamibSossusvleiSome of the tallest sand dunes on earth, coloured orange-red by iron, around white clay pans.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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