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Cartagena's Roman theatre below the ruined Old Cathedral, with the historic centre and harbour beyond
City

Murcia · Campo de Cartagena

Cartagena

A naval harbour where the Punic and Roman city, an eighteenth-century arsenal and a modern Mediterranean port occupy the same sheltered basin.

An old harbour still at work

A city read from its hills down to the water

Cartagena's natural harbour drew Punic founders, Roman merchants and the Spanish Navy to the same protected water. Archaeological remains surface among ordinary streets rather than in a separate ancient quarter.

The Roman theatre and ruined Old Cathedral make that layering unusually clear. Below them, the civil port, ARQVA and the walls of the active naval arsenal keep the city's maritime story in the present tense.

Fast facts

INE padrón, 1 Jan 2025

Population
220,704
Change since 2015
+2%

216,301 in 2015

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