Hotels near The Palace of the Inquisition

The Palacio de la Inquisicion on Plaza de Bolivar deals with the part of Cartagena's past that the painted balconies distract from. The Holy Office ran its tribunal here from 1610 until 1811, one of only three seats in Spanish America. The building dates from 1770, and its carved baroque doorway is the finest piece of colonial stonework in the city. A narrow slot in the side wall on Calle de la Inquisicion is where anonymous denunciations were posted.

The ground floor displays instruments of torture with flat, unsentimental descriptions of their use, alongside records of the roughly 800 people condemned here. Upstairs the register changes completely and the building becomes a city history museum, with pre-Columbian Zenu goldwork, siege maps and scale models of the fortifications. Entry is about 26,000 COP (6 EUR) and an hour covers both floors. English labelling is patchy, so a guide hired at the door for around 40,000 COP (9 EUR) adds real value.

Pro Tip: Come at 15:00 once the tour groups have moved on and the upper galleries go quiet. This is also one of the few air-conditioned stops inside the walls, which makes it a sensible way to sit out the worst of the afternoon heat.