Cartagena, Spain
- At August 06, 2023
- By Jessica
- In Travel
0
Port of Cartegna as we docked
The Old City is a marble paved pedestrian zone, lined with outdoor cafes and beautiful art nouveau architecture from Cartegna's heyday as a mining center.
Surrounded by farmland and market gardens, the locals are never at a loss for fresh produce from "Europe's orchard," as this fertile corner of Spain is often called. Our guide said that within a day of picking fruit and vegetables from Cartegna they are for sale in Paris, London, and Rome.
The city was founded in 227 BC by the Carthaginians. They called it Qart-Hadast = New City. Ancient Carthage is now modern day Tunisia. The Punic Wars took place over 43 years between 264 BC and 146 BC between Carthage in North Africa wanting to expand North and Rome wanting to expand South. It's all a bit confusing but the Carthaginians are the same people as the Phoenicians, from whom the name of the Punic Wars is derived.
Hannibal, real name Anibal Barca, was head of the Carthaginian Army. I'd always heard of him and his elephants but could never really place him in context until now. He and his elephants marched from Cartegna to Rome in 219 BC over the Pyrenees in an attempt to capture Rome.
During the first Punic War Rome won Sicily and Carthage won Cartegna. They kept it for 20 years. In the second Punic War Rome won Carthage in three days. In the third Punic War, Rome destroyed Carthage completely.
The Punic Wall rampart in Cartegna is the only remains of the Carthaginians in Europe.
The Moors occupied the city from 825 AD and introduced a vast irrigation network for crops and for city use. They were expelled from Cartegna by Ferdinand Ill of Castile in 1243. Up until then, the residents used the sewers installed by the Romans. In 1243, the Christians abandoned the use of sewers bringing upon themselves all kinds of disease. The victory gave Castile access to the Mediterranean. 200 plus years later, Ferdinand of Castile and Isabella of Aragon married and in 1492 captured the last city, Granada, still under Muslim control. They expelled all Muslims and Jews from Spain.
Cartegna's province of Murcia remained a vassal kingdom until 1812 and became an autonomous region of Spain in 1982.
FUN FACT: The expression "Heads will roll" comes from Ancient Rome and refers to the removable heads on marble statues that were replaced when a new emperor came to power.
The 19th century gave rise to enormous lead, zinc, and iron mining fortunes. (The Romans depleted the silver mines during their tenure.) the last mine in Cartegna was closed in 1994. These tycoons built fabulous homes in the Art Nouveau style in the beginning of the 20th century. Most of them are bank branches today. (No surprise)
Franco ruled Spain under a fascist iron fist for 40 years. Only when he died in 1975 did Spain become a democracy. The fascists had no interest in preserving antiquities, which may explain why the Punic Wall, Roman Theater (1988), and House of Fortune (1971) weren't excavated until recently. The fascinating Crypt of San Jose was discovered at the same time as the Punic Wall.
EW FACT: The ancient Romans crushed black flies to use as mascara.
Found this sweet reminder of home:
