With an amazing history dating back to the colonial era, Cartagena is one of Colombia’s most popular tourist destinations and is loaded with all kinds of interesting and historic sites. Among these is the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, a massive concrete and red brick fortress originally designed by Dutch engineer Richard Carr and built by the Spaniards in 1657. The fortress provided additional defense against pirates for all the gold being sent back to Europe. Originally the fortress was quite small, but then in 1762 it underwent a considerable reconstruction headed by Spanish architect Antonio de Arévalo that expanded to the size it is today, taking up the entire 130 foot tall hill.
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