Santa Cruz de Mompox

Santa Cruz de Mompox is a town in northern Colombia, which has preserved its colonial character. It is located on an island in the Magdalena River where it joins the Cauca, 249 kilometers from Cartagena.

The city was founded on May 3, 1537 by Don Alonso de Heredia as a safe port on the Magdalena. Santa Cruz de Mompox became quite prosperous as a port for the transportation of goods upriver into the interior. A royal mint was established here and the town was famous for its goldsmiths. This prosperity had begun to wane in the Nineteenth Century, but continued until early in the Twentieth Century when the river shifted and sediment accumulated on this arm of the river.

Year Decision Comments
1995 Inscribed Reasons for inscription

Reviews

Jorge Giraldo (Usa):
Cartagena, the masterpiece of the empire. At the same time, surraunded for pirates from England, and Holand. If you are a wealty, and aristocratic spaniard, living in Cartagena during the XVII-XVIII centuries, the smarter way to live in the area was moving to Mompox. An island in midle of the Magic Magdalena river, in midle of the rute to Honda-Bogota, and a shelter far away from Spain. Just the idea of Spain. Perhaps Seville was the model to build Mompox. One of the most magical Unesco Sites.
Seven churches. San Francisco church just an idea of baroche.
Breakfast at the marketplace. Arepa de huevo with an fresh orange juice in front of the river. You will love it.
The marketplace from the river...just divine.
Date posted: May 2008


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