Origins
Getsemaní was not born as the neighborhood of murals and hostels that tourism now walks through. It was born as extramuros: the outskirts where Cartagena pushed those who did not fit —or should not fit— inside the walled enclosure. Since the 17th century, this strip between the wall and the marsh concentrated the city's Afro-descendant population: enslaved people brought through the slave port, freedmen, artisans and sailors. While the walled center displayed merchants' houses and convents, Getsemaní functioned as the productive and human lung that sustained the stronghold.
Slavery in Cartagena was not a backdrop: it was the economy. The port was one of the main entry points for enslaved people into the Spanish empire in America, and that labor built the walls, the bastions and the buildings that are photographed today without thinking about who raised them. In Getsemaní, that population organized into brotherhoods, mutual aid societies and solidarity networks that supported widows, the sick and the newly freed. Those networks are the seed of the neighborhood life still recognizable in its streets.
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Timeline or historical milestones
17th century: the outskirts that grew beyond the wall
Getsemaní consolidated as an extramuros settlement, symbolically and physically separated from colonial power. The wall not only defended against pirates: it also ordered hierarchies. Living inside was a privilege; living outside, a condition. The neighborhood grew around port activity, waterfront trades and small-scale commerce.
1811–1815: independence takes shape on the margins
The independence of Cartagena on November 11, 1811 cannot be explained without the popular sectors. The artisans and militiamen of the outskirts —many of them Afro-descendant and pardos— were the shock force and support base of the movement. Traditional historiography focused on the criollo elites; neighborhood memory insists on the opposite: independence was also a project of those who had nothing to lose.
1823: Padilla and Lake Maracaibo
The name that runs through this history is that of José Prudencio Padilla López, born in Riohacha in 1784. Of pardo origin, a sailor and artilleryman, Padilla became one of the decisive naval figures of Gran Colombia's independence. His victory at Lake Maracaibo in 1823 sealed the definitive expulsion of Spanish power from the Caribbean and consolidated the independence of what is now Colombia and Venezuela. A Black admiral in a society that reserved ranks and honors for whites: that is the historical knot that Getsemaní reclaims.
1828: the execution that history took time to name
Padilla's career ended in the worst way. Accused in the context of the conspiracy against Simón Bolívar, he was executed by firing squad in Bogotá on October 2, 1828. His death is read by much of historiography as a case of racial exclusion in the nascent republic: the hero who delivered the naval victory was eliminated when he stopped being useful to the criollo order. That episode is today central to the Black memory routes of Cartagena.
19th and 20th centuries: the working-class neighborhood and its decline
After independence, Getsemaní remained the neighborhood of trades: shoemakers, waterfront carpenters, laundresses, fried-food vendors. The abolition of slavery in Colombia was enacted in 1851, but formal equality did not change everyday hierarchies. In the 20th century the neighborhood entered a long institutional abandonment, with deteriorated republican and colonial houses and a reputation that scared off locals and outsiders alike. That stigma is part of the history: the same neighborhood that today sells itself as bohemian was for decades the one nobody wanted to visit at night.
Late 20th and 21st centuries: the dispute over the narrative
The declaration of Cartagena as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 and the subsequent tourism pressure transformed Getsemaní. Hostels, murals and terraces arrived. And with them an uncomfortable question: who tells the neighborhood's history? From there emerged community memory initiatives, guided tours led by local leaders and cultural spaces that seek to ensure tourism does not erase those who made the neighborhood.
Key figures or events
José Prudencio Padilla, the pardo admiral
Born in Riohacha in 1784, Padilla joined the navy at a very young age and fought in the independence wars of Gran Colombia. His victory at Lake Maracaibo in 1823 was decisive in ending Spanish dominion in the Caribbean. He was executed by firing squad in Bogotá on October 2, 1828. To understand his symbolic weight, one must see him in context: an Afro-descendant man who reached the rank of admiral in a social structure that discriminated against him for his origin, and who ended up executed by the same political project he helped win.
The artisans and militiamen of the outskirts
Without proper names in school books, the pardos, zambos and free Blacks of Getsemaní formed the militias that sustained the independence cause in Cartagena. Their participation was military and also logistical: transport, supplies, boat repair. Social history recovers them as political subjects, not as extras.
The brotherhoods and mutual aid societies
Before any welfare state, in Getsemaní it was the religious brotherhoods and mutual aid societies that sustained the community: dignified burials, care for the sick, support for orphans. That invisible social infrastructure is what explains the neighborhood's cohesion and its capacity to resist state abandonment.
The abolition of 1851 and its limits
Colombia abolished slavery in 1851, but legal freedom did not come with land, credit or education. The Afro-descendant population continued to occupy the hardest trades and the most forgotten neighborhoods. That gap between law and real life is key to understanding the present of Getsemaní and of Cartagena in general.
Current state
Today Getsemaní is a neighborhood in tension. On one hand, tourism pressure and gentrification are pushing out families who have lived in the same house for generations. On the other, there is a lively cultural scene that reclaims Afro memory and the history of resistance. The murals are not just decoration: many narrate precisely this history. The key for the visitor is to distinguish between the neighborhood as a stage set and the neighborhood as a community with its own memory.
Plaza de la Trinidad
Plaza de la Trinidad is the heart of Getsemaní and the point where history and daily life cross without ceremony. Neighbors have historically gathered here, and here it still happens: older people chatting on the benches, children playing soccer, fried-food vendors and, as evening falls, the nightlife that spills into the surrounding streets. The church presiding over the plaza is the visual anchor of the area. It is the best place to start any memory walk: sit for a while and observe before walking.
Baluarte de San Francisco Javier
Baluarte de San Francisco Javier is one of the pieces of the fortification that defended the city's access through the Getsemaní sector. Its value for this history is twofold: on one hand, it is military architecture built largely with enslaved labor; on the other, it is the physical reminder of the border between the privileged intramuros and the popular outskirts. Today it functions as a transit space and urban viewpoint, and its reading changes completely once you know who raised it.
Casa de la Cultura de Getsemaní
The Casa de la Cultura is the space where neighborhood memory is organized: workshops, community activities, presentations and a living archive of the neighborhood. It is the kind of place that does not appear on express itineraries and that, nevertheless, explains better than any monument how Getsemaní thinks of itself. It is recommended to check programming and hours before visiting, as they vary according to the community agenda.
Monument to José Prudencio Padilla
The Monument to José Prudencio Padilla is located in a small plaza near the Museo Naval del Caribe and in front of Parque de la Marina, in the center of Cartagena. It is the bronze tribute to the admiral who won at Lake Maracaibo and who was executed by firing squad in 1828. Seeing it in context —a few meters from the water, facing the bay that was the scene of his war— gives it a weight no photo captures. It is a must-stop to close the historical tour with a concrete image.
How to honor this history on your visit
The most direct way is to choose local guides, preferably leaders from the neighborhood itself, who tell the history from within and not from the brochure. Buy from local businesses, respect the houses that are homes and not stage sets, and ask before photographing people. If you want to go deeper, look for the Black memory routes that connect Getsemaní with the historic center and with the history of slavery in Cartagena. And if the tour includes a stop at Plaza de la Trinidad, Baluarte de San Francisco Javier, the Casa de la Cultura or the Monument to Padilla, take the time to listen to the version of those who live there: it is the one that is not in the books.
To organize the tour, at malokal.com you will find the interactive cards for each stop, the safe map by neighborhood (Locales vs. Extranjeros), live holiday schedules and the option to book directly via WhatsApp with neighborhood operators. Guided tours in the sector usually move within a reference range of $40,000 to $90,000 COP per person depending on duration and language, and entry to community cultural spaces ranges from free to $20,000 COP, always subject to change and direct verification with each space.
