Cartagena, Spain

Cartagena in Murcia has been a major seaport on the southeast coast of Spain since the ninth century B. C. As its name reflects, its recorded history stems from the Carthaginians. It was won by the Romans, who built a lovely theater here that has been excavated in the 1990’s. There is Roman stuff everywhere—in the streets, at the port, under the city.

This was a hotly contested area after the Muslims came in during the eighth century. The Kingdom of Castille under Alfonso X (El Sabio), whose writings I once read in school, gained control of this part of the Iberian peninsula in the twelfth century. He was noted for inviting Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars to study in his court. In Concepción Castle there is a wonderful exhibit about Alfonso, showing some of the actual books, illuminated manuscripts and legal documents from that period. This area went back and forth between Muslims and the “most Christian” kings of Castille until 1492 when the merger—uh, marriage—of Ferdinand and Isabella drove all the Semitic people, Muslims and Jews, out of their new wholly Christian kingdom called Spain. Miguel de Cervantes lived here in Cartagena, or rather he was enslaved here by Moorish slave traders. Europeans were bought and sold as slaves by the Muslims well into the nineteenth century until the Barbary pirates were defeated by the new United States and Sweden. Knowing that Cervantes was a slave gives an entirely new perspective on the story of Don Quixote.

We visited Concepción Castle, the old Phoenician walls, the Roman theater, and finally stopped at a restaurant called La Taranta where we had some of the most delicious stuffed peppers imaginable. This is my idea of the best possible way to spend a day.Read more