Introduction to Cartagena Spain

Cartagena city and Cartagena municipality in the Region of Murcia, Spain

There is often confusion on internet searches as there are two Cartagena’s : one in Columbia and the other in Spain.

Cartagena Spain is the second city in the Region of Murcia, located in southern Spain, on the Mediterranean coast, a major naval base and historical port. The city of Cartagena is surrounded by the municipality of Cartagena, which has beaches along its coastline and a rich agricultural tradition in the Cartagena campo. It borders with La Unión, Fuente Álamo, Los Alcázares, Torre Pacheco and Mazarrón and has 218,000 inhabitants.

Cartagena Spain is inextricably linked to the sea, a natural defensive port which has been fought over for more than 2000 years, the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, Moors and Byzantines just some of the cultures who occupied or passed through the port.

Today it is an important active military and naval base, home to the Navantia ship and submarine building works, with a Military Museum, Naval museum and sophisticated 44 element coastal battery defensive system, some of which still have their Vickers guns intact, such as Castillitos and El Jorel.

 The port is also home to several major sporting sailing competitions, is a busy container shipping port with extended industrial area at Escombreras, home to the Repsol refinery and the base for Cartagena’s fishing fleet.

Tourism is an important industry, the newly built El Batel Conference centre created to capture congress tourism, and the port extended to attract cruise tourism.

Around 100 cruise ships a year dock in Cartagena Spain, offering a rich cultural experience to visitors, the Roman Theatre Museum, Casa de la Fortuna, Augusteum, Civil war Air Raid shelter, Castle of Concepción, Panoramic lift, Fuerte de Navidad and Cartagena Archaeological Museum all important cultural attractions for visitors, as well as the tourist bus and tourist boat.

Cartagena also has several important Fiestas and festivals each year with Mar de Musicas, the Cartagena Jazz festival, Cartagena Guitar Festival, Romans and Carthaginians Festival and Semana Santa all attracting tourists.

There are also a number of places of tourist interest nearby, worth hiring a car to visit the mines at La Unión, or wild beaches of El Portus, Galifa or La Azohía.

Cartagena Spain includes part of the Mar Menor, Europes largest saltwater lake within its territories. The Mar Menor has natural mud baths and soft sandy beaches, offering safe bathing and learning conditions for windsurfing, kitesurfing, sailing, diving and water ski-ing, with plenty of hotel and apartment accommodation for rent.

Cartagena’s coastline is part of the Costa Cálida, or warm coast and has a wealth of natural Mediterranean wild beaches, part of which includes Cabo de Palos and the Islas Hormigas marine protection area, offering the best diving conditions in the Mediterranean.

Residential tourism an important part of Cartagenas economy, the La Manga Club Golf Resort recognised as one of Europes top golfing destinations,  also offering winter training facilities for International footballers. La Manga is also a residential tourism destination with many apartments and hotels, and expat communities in Los Belones, Playa Honda, Los Urrutias and Los Nietos.

The Campo de Cartagena is an important centre for export agricultural crops, melons, lettuces, broccoli and artichokes, olive oil, almonds, poultry, and fresh fish leading to an important gastronomic tradition, with local produce featuring on the menus of local restaurants.

Murcia Today has a section exclusively dedicate to Cartagena Spain, which is divided into information about the City Centre for tourists arriving on cruise ships who have no extra transport facilities and those who are visiting the municipality itself and may wish to explore further.

The information can be searched by subject and explores the subject of places to visit,  museums, history, shopping and many other local subjects.

At the bottom of every page on Murcia Today is a navigational map box which helps visitors to locate the towns and cities within the Region of Murcia, each with its own section.

Specific subjects can be searched by using the keyword search box at the top of every page: the less words typed in the better as this narrows the search.