Today I was going to visit the Convento la Popa which is now a church with a museum. It stands on a 150 m-high hill, the highest point in Cartagena.

To start my journey I took a cab. I got it for totally COP 60’000 (USD 20) for Getsmani – Popa, 1 hour waiting and all the way back to Getsmani. But you might be able to haggle it down to half of that. As you can see on the image below it was a “cab of love” 🙂

Finally we arrived at the convent. A beautiful sight. The convent’s name literally means the Convent of the Stern, after the hill’s apparent similarity to a ship’s back end. Founded by the Augustine fathers in 1607, its official name is actually Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria. Before that, this hill was once a pilgrim place for some satanic rites. So this was the main reason for the decision of building a convent with a church in top of the hill.

In the convent’s chapel there is a nice image of La Virgen de la Candelaria, the patroness of the city.

The view from this convent is just outstanding!

Here the view in the direction of Getsemani, the old town of Cartagena.

And here in the direction of Bocagrande – the modern part of Cartagena with many hotels.

The Convention has also a charming flower-filled patio which is beautiful. You can see the colonial Spanish heritage of the architecture.

Let’s have a closer look at that again.