Cartagena

The place may first have been called Mastia, but its history really begins around 227 BC, when the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal refounded it as Qart Hadasht, "New City", on one of the best harbours in the western Mediterranean. Scipio Africanus took it for Rome in 209 BC and renamed it Carthago Nova; it grew rich on silver and lead mines, on garum, the fermented fish sauce, and on esparto grass, and in 298 AD Diocletian made it capital of the province of Carthaginensis. After the Vandals sacked it, it passed between Visigoths and Byzantines, and by the time of the Muslim conquest in 714 it was barely a fishing village.

Castile took the city by force in 1245, and the bishop's seat moved to Murcia in the 13th century. Cartagena revived only in the 18th century: in 1728 it became the capital of the navy's Mediterranean department, was heavily fortified with new castles and an arsenal, and grew from about 10,000 to 50,000 people. The reopening of the mines of the Sierra Minera after 1840 brought a mining boom whose wealth paid for the Art Nouveau buildings of the early 20th century.

In 1873 the city declared itself the independent Canton of Cartagena and held out under siege for months. In the Civil War it was the main base of the Republican navy and the last Spanish city to surrender to Franco. Industry grew in the 1950s, but restructuring in the early 1990s brought a deep job crisis and protests in which the regional parliament was set on fire. Since then restoration of the Roman theatre and the old town has made heritage tourism a new mainstay.

Two festivals define the city's year. Cartagena's Holy Week processions are known across Spain for their strict order and discipline, a reflection of the naval tradition, and were declared a fiesta of international tourist interest in 2005. In the last ten days of September comes Carthaginians and Romans, a colourful parade and programme of events recalling the Punic Wars and the conquest of the city by both empires. In May, crosses decorated with flowers are set up for the Cruces de Mayo, and the districts of the municipality each hold their own patron saint festivities and romerías.

The navy is everywhere — in the arsenal and shipyard, the museums and the monuments on the harbour front — and so is the past. The "Cartagena, Port of Cultures" initiative ties together the Roman theatre, the Punic wall, the castle, the Civil War shelters and other sites. Isaac Peral, who launched one of the first submarines in 1888, was born in the city, and his boat is its best-known relic.

The Art Nouveau architecture of Víctor Beltrí, who designed the town hall, the Casino and many houses for the families made rich by mining, gives the centre its look. The local sweets called suspiros are said to have inspired the composer of the pasodoble "Suspiros de España" while he was in the city.

About 219,000 people lived in the municipality in 2024, the second-largest in the Region of Murcia, and the wider Campo de Cartagena holds about 410,000. The municipality is huge: it is divided into 24 districts called diputaciones, from the city centre to farming villages and resorts on the Mar Menor. About 15 per cent of residents were born abroad, Moroccans the largest group.

Energy industries are among the main employers, concentrated in the Escombreras valley a few kilometres west of the city; the naval base and shipyard remain important, farms in the surrounding plain grow melons, lettuces, potatoes, lemons and almonds, and tourism and hospitality have grown fast. The health of the Mar Menor lagoon is a constant local concern after the pollution and fish deaths of 2019 and 2021, which brought 70,000 people out to form a chain around it.

The rhythm of the day is Spanish — a long lunch and late dinner — and in summer many families move out to their apartments on the Mar Menor and La Manga.

Cartagena's best-known dish is caldero, a rice cooked by fishermen with rock fish. Michirones, a stew of dried broad beans, is the classic bar dish; others are rice with rabbit, rabbit al ajo cabañil, octopus Cartagena-style, the ensalada cantonal, and salazones, salted and dried fish. Desserts include arrope, a sweet made with dried figs, tocino de cielo and pan de Calatrava.

The city's own drink is the asiático, a coffee made with condensed milk, brandy and Licor 43, typical of Cartagena and the surrounding Campo de Cartagena. Láguena mixes anise and sweet wine in equal parts, and reparo does the same with brandy and sweet wine.

Bakeries are a local pride. The pastel de carne cartagenero is a puff-pastry pie filled with meat, chorizo and hard-boiled egg, and crespillos are crisp, salted rounds of wheat dough. Sweet pastries include suspiros, cordiales and rollicos de San Antón. Calle Mayor and the old town lanes are the place to try them, with tapas, in the evening.