Museums in Cartagena's Old Town: Three Worth Your Morning
By Townhouse Cartagena ·
Quick answer
The three museums in Cartagena's Old Town worth your morning are the Museo Histórico de Cartagena inside the Palacio de la Inquisición on Plaza de Bolívar (24,000 COP for adults, 20,000 for kids, students and seniors, free under 5, open Monday to Saturday 9:00 to 18:00 and Sunday and holidays 10:00 to 16:00), the Museo del Oro Zenú on the same square (free, closed Mondays), and the Museo Naval del Caribe (24,000 COP for adults, 5,000 for children, open daily from 9:00). All three sit within a walk of about ten minutes from our door in San Diego. Go before 11:00, when the heat on the plaza turns the walk between them into a chore.
The walk between the Old Town museums is short and shadeless. Go early. · Photo by Ronin on Unsplash
Three museums inside the walls are worth your morning, and you can do two of them on the same square. We send guests out the door around 9:00, because by 11:00 the plazas are hot enough that walking four blocks feels like a decision.
We're on Carrera 7 in San Diego, so Plaza de Bolívar is a walk of about ten minutes: south through the Old Town on whichever street has shade. That square holds both the Palacio de la Inquisición and the Museo del Oro Zenú, which means you can see a torture museum and a free gold museum in the same hour and then argue about it over lunch. The Museo Naval del Caribe is a short walk on from there.
One piece of planning that saves a wasted trip: the Museo del Oro Zenú is closed on Mondays. If Monday is your museum day, do the Palacio de la Inquisición and the Naval instead, both of which open Monday.
What follows is what each one actually is, what it costs, and who should skip it. Nothing here is a full day. Museums are a morning in Cartagena, and then you're back on our rooftop by the afternoon.
Museo Histórico de Cartagena (Palacio de la Inquisición)
· About a 10-minute walk from us, on Plaza de Bolívar · 24,000 COP adults; 20,000 COP children, students, teachers and seniors; free under 5
This is the big one, and the building is half the reason to go: the Inquisition palace on Plaza de Bolívar, with a stone doorway and a courtyard that is genuinely beautiful for a place with that history. The collection runs through the Inquisition instruments, then the city's own story, colonial through independence. It is heavier going than people expect, so if you're travelling with young kids, know that before you buy tickets. Open Monday to Saturday 9:00 to 18:00, Sundays and holidays 10:00 to 16:00. Under-5s go free.
Museo del Oro Zenú
· Same square as the Inquisition palace, about 10 minutes from us · Free
Free, small, air-conditioned and the best 45 minutes in the Old Town if you're the sort who reads the labels. The Banco de la República reopened it in 2023 and it focuses on Zenú goldwork and the people who made it, not on a room of shiny things behind glass. Because it's compact you can do it either side of the Inquisition palace without your day disappearing. Closed Mondays. Tuesday to Saturday it runs 9:00 to 5:00, with shorter hours on Sunday, so check the Banrepcultural page before a Sunday afternoon visit.
Museo Naval del Caribe
· A short walk on from Plaza de Bolívar, still inside the walls · 24,000 COP adults, 10,000 COP students, 5,000 COP children
Go here if pirates, forts and the mechanics of how this city kept getting attacked are what you actually came for. It covers navigation and Caribbean naval history in a big colonial building, and it's the one of the three that lands best with kids, partly because of the ship models and partly because children pay 5,000 COP. Open daily, from 9:00 in the morning until 5:30 in the afternoon. It's also the least crowded of the three at opening time.
