The Day Cartagena Disappeared: The Pirate Invasion That Erased a Neighborhood from the Map

Origins

Before the sun set over Cartagena on April 28, 1697, the neighborhood of Getsemaní was not the labyrinth of narrow streets you know today. It was a hive of activity: fishermen, artisans, freed slaves, and boisterous merchants filled its squares. The walled city, proud and fortified, trusted its bastions. But outside, in the Caribbean Sea, a shadow was lengthening. A fleet of 29 French ships, commanded by the baron de Pointis, sailed with a single mission: to erase Cartagena from the map.

What few know is that Getsemaní was not always the bohemian neighborhood you see today. Before the invasion, it was a densely populated suburb, with wooden and thatched houses, where the Black and mixed-race population lived separately from the wealthy Spaniards of the center. It was the city's lungs, the place where improvised defenses were assembled. But Pointis did not come for sightseeing. He came to plunder, rape, and destroy. And he succeeded.

Timeline or historical milestones

1695-1696: The French conspiracy

King Louis XIV of France, tired of Spain controlling the gold routes, authorized a secret expedition. Pointis, a privateer with a letter of marque, gathered 7,000 men in Brest, including sailors, soldiers, and adventurers. The order was clear: take Cartagena, steal everything that shone, and leave the city in ashes. The fleet set sail in January 1697, but no one in Cartagena knew it.

April 1697: The siege and the fall

On April 15, lookouts at the Castillo de San Felipe saw the sails on the horizon. Pointis landed on the beach of Bocagrande, then just mangroves and sand. The Spaniards, poorly prepared, concentrated their defenses in the walled center. But Pointis was cunning: he circled the bay by land, crossing swamps and forests, and fell upon Getsemaní from the weak flank. On April 28, after a week of constant bombardment, the neighborhood's walls gave way. The French entered like an avalanche.

April 29 - May 10: The week of terror

Pointis allowed his men to loot without restraint for 12 days. The houses of Getsemaní were burned down one by one. Historical records speak of 500 houses destroyed, 300 dead, and thousands displaced. The French emptied churches, stole the jewels of the Virgen de la Candelaria, and even took the bronze bells. When they left, they left behind a ghost neighborhood. Literally: many bodies remained buried under the rubble.

1698-1710: The slow reconstruction

The survivors had no choice but to return. But the Spanish Crown, bankrupt, took years to send funds. The houses were rebuilt with brick and lime, but smaller, poorer. The urban layout changed: many streets narrowed, and some squares disappeared. The lost neighborhood was not lost to the sea, but under the rubble of war.

Key characters or events

The baron de Pointis: the pirate with a title

Jean-Baptiste du Casse, the baron de Pointis, was no ordinary pirate. He was a French nobleman, an admiral of the royal navy. His attack on Cartagena was a military operation, not a buccaneer adventure. But his cruelty was legendary: he burned prisoners alive to obtain information, raped nuns in convents, and took a loot valued at 20 million pounds (today, about 500 million dollars). He died in 1707, but his name remains cursed in local chronicles.

Don Diego de los Ríos: the forgotten hero

The governor of Cartagena in 1697 was a 70-year-old man, Don Diego de los Ríos. Despite his age, he organized the resistance from the Castillo de San Felipe. When Pointis entered the city, De los Ríos refused to surrender and fought street by street. He was captured and tortured, but never revealed where the cathedral's gold was hidden. He died in prison in France. Today, a plaque in the Plaza de la Aduana remembers him, but few tourists read it.

The myth of la negra Tomasa

Legend has it that a slave named Tomasa, who lived in Getsemaní, hid her daughter in a well when the French arrived. The soldiers found her and raped her. Tomasa, in revenge, poisoned them with a soup made from rotten fish. Since then, the old folks of the neighborhood say, her ghost appears on full moon nights, searching for her daughter. It is one of the most told pirate legends Cartagena on night tours.

Current state

Evidence beneath your feet

Today, as you walk along Calle de la Media Luna or Plaza de la Trinidad, you are literally stepping on the ashes of 1697. In 2015, during the construction of a boutique hotel on Calle del Sargento, archaeologists found remains of a 17th-century house: charcoal, calcined bones, and French coins. It is the physical proof of that invasion. The hotel, called Casa Pestagua, displays some of those findings in its lobby.

The neighborhood that was reborn

After centuries of neglect, Getsemaní resurged in the 2000s as the epicenter of Cartagena's nightlife. But the scars are there: the narrow streets, the low houses, the inner courtyards where there were once burned plots. Plaza de la Trinidad, where young people drink beer today, was the place where Pointis gathered prisoners before shipping them off as slaves. Every cobblestone has a story of blood.

Legends and ghosts

If you ask local guides, they will tell you that on Calle de la Sierpe, near Parque del Centenario, the sound of French boots can be heard at midnight. They also say that in the Convento de San Francisco, now ruins, Pointis hid part of his treasure before fleeing. No one has found it, but every year treasure hunters arrive with metal detectors. The police kick them out, but they come back.

Fun fact: the map nobody saw

In 2018, a historian from the University of Cartagena found in the archives of Seville a detailed map of Getsemaní drawn by the French after the invasion. The map shows streets that no longer exist, such as "Calle de los Esclavos" and "Plaza del Fuego." That map, digitized, can be seen at the Museo de la Inquisición (Carrera 7 # 4-21, open Monday to Saturday, 9am-5pm, entry $25,000 COP). It is the only visual proof of what the neighborhood looked like before the tragedy.

Reference prices (June 2026)

If you want to see these vestiges, guided night tours by local historians cost around $60,000 COP per person. They depart from Plaza de la Trinidad at 7 pm, last two hours, and end with a craft beer at a local bar. It is recommended to check schedules before visiting, as they fill up quickly during high season.

Call to Action (CTA)

History is not just in books. It is in the salt-stained walls, the worn cobblestones, and the humid air of Getsemaní. This June 2026, dare to walk through the lost neighborhood with a flashlight and a guide who knows how to read the scars. Discover the vestiges of that invasion on a guided night walk led by local historians. It is not tourism; it is a pilgrimage through the memory of a city that refused to die.