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My travel in Europe:
From Malaga to Alicante, Spain 2026

Content:

Day 7, Cartagena day 3

Our third day in Cartagena and also our last full day before we continue with bus to next stop. Today there will be many museum visits.

Map, over Cartagena old city:

We walked in the old city of Cartagena.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Cartagena:

https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Cartagena,_Spain (Cartagena, Wikipedia)

Plaza San Francisco:

We start the morning with a walk to our nearby square San Francisco.

Casa de la Fortuna:

First museum to visit today is the Casa de la Fortuna, a ruin of an old Roman villa. The museum is located in the basement of the newly built house above.

It's exciting to walk around here in all the rooms of the Roman villa. Here we have a doorpost out to the main street outside.

We go out through the door to the street outside.

During the excavations, they have uncovered a large part of the street. At the far wall, the street is cut off, where there is a more modern house, but they have made a painting of what the continuation of the street might have looked like.

Decumano Maximo:

After the Roman house we continue towards an old city wall. On the way we pass an excavation in a park. This is the street Decumano Maximo they found, roughly the main street.

You can clearly see the old street paving, imagine that this street was built 2000 years ago!

At the far end, the street disappears under today's street, which is 2 meters above.

We continue out through the park and cross the street there. Here we see a cross street that they have dug out, it was the one we passed when we arrived in Cartagena a couple of days ago.

Iglesias del Sagrado Caorazon de Jesus:

We continue the walk towards the city center. Here we pass an old, beautiful church.

Now we are almost at the city wall, here is a portal preserved from an old house they demolished. Perhaps it is reminiscent of the portal that is said to have existed here in the city wall.

The Punic Wall:

Here we have the museum The Punic Wall. So it's before Roman times. The city that Hannibal from Cartagena built.

The city wall consists of two walls with spaces in between. Here is the side facing the city.

Inside the wall were rooms for the soldiers, an armory and stables.

Much later, a crypt was built inside the wall, probably during the Middle Ages.

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The museum's walls have been built to mimic what the wall once looked like. You can climb up here and get a view of the surroundings.

The road towards Cartagena's city center.

We are going to take the bus tomorrow morning, but we are not sure where the bus leaves from and when. We need to visit the bus station to get more information. We follow the road along a medieval defensive wall.

Estacion de autobuses:

The bus station is a bit oddly designed, like an old lighthouse. We manage to get information so we are convinced that we will be able to make it on this bus trip, but we have to split it up into three different buses.

Cupola Respiradero:

After sorting out the bus problems, we decide to walk down to the harbor. There is a newly built maritime archaeology museum that we are interested in. On the way to the harbor, we pass this dome that stands in the middle of the sidewalk, but we haven't managed to figure out what it is for. Here I found some information about Cupola Respiradero, a sewer vent, no so exciting.

Sanidad Exterior:

An old house stands alone by the road.

A portal in the medieval city wall facing the sea. The only portal we have seen in the wall.

Museo Nacional de Arquologia:

So we have arrived at the port and the museum we want to visit, Museo Nacional de Arquologia.

The entrance to the museum is down there, a long ramp leads us there.

At the museum, which is very interesting, we can follow the historical development of ports and boats. Many different cultures have ruled these areas. Trade was important and many wars have been fought at sea.

An interesting board shows the alphabets in different languages, Latin, Greek and Phoenician.

Mare Nostrum:

We've been going for many hours now and our stomachs are telling us that we need some food. A restaurant with a sea view suits us well. Mare Nostrum is Latin and that's what the Romans called the Mediterranean, Our Sea.

We are sitting comfortably here, there is a slight breeze from the sea, which we appreciate on this hot day, over 30 degrees Celsius.

A restaurant by the sea naturally serves many fish dishes. But I find my favorite food on hot days, ham with melon.

After finishing lunch, we continue along the quay. We're going to the Roman Theatre Museum. We figured out last night where the entrance was, now all that matters is that it's open. We follow the shadow from the sunshades they've put up.

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Obeliscos de Cartago Roma:

Here at the obelisks we turn off towards the old town where the museum's entrance is located.

Leaving the harbor and entering the old city.

Museo del Teatro Romano de Cartago:

We are lucky and the museum is open. There is an exhibition of the finds they dug up.

There is a picture carved on a pillar, it looks like he is playing a harp.

The theater itself is located far from the entrance, several blocks away. We walk through tunnels and ride escalators to get to the theater.

One last tunnel and we enter the theater.

We come out of the tunnel and into the light, here the Roman Theater spreads out. Inside the museum, we have seen several models of what the theater once looked like.

Much of the theater is destroyed, but here on one side they have managed to recreate part of it.

This lintel with inscription is a copy, the originals were inside the museum.

It's not that many years ago that this theater was covered with market stalls and warehouses. It's amazing that they managed to excavate and recreate it, Roman Theatre of Cartagena.

Plaza San Francisco:

After this we went back to our room to rest for a while. But we have a few more things we want to explore before we leave Cartagena. Out to our beloved Plaza San Francisco.

In the square there are traces of how the Roman houses and their columns stood. Here the text Taberna, perhaps as a roadside restaurant and one edge of it was marked at the Casa dela Fortuna museum which we visited this morning.

Plaza de Lago:

A large part of the land on which the city of Cartagena is located was a lake 2000 years ago. Maybe that's why they call this place Plaza de Lago. A fantastic mural adorns a gable. Archaeological excavations are underway here in the pit.

We are wondering what activities were going on here during Roman times.

Now we only have one more visit left, the Roman amphitheater. We walk up a park road that we have visited before to get there.

Bullring and Roman Amphitheater:

We have had difficulty finding information about the Roman amphitheater. It turns out that in recent years they built a bullring on top of it. But there are supposed to be ruins of the amphitheater. The arena is closed for reconstruction and renovation, but we can see a little of it through the fence that surrounds it.