Rafael Nuñez House Museum

The basics

The Caribbean-Antillean styled white and green mansion was built in 1858, and today serves as a museum where you can see Núñez’s documents and personal possessions, which include furniture, paintings, and art. Opposite the house is the chapel of Ermita del Cabrero, where the ashes of Núñez and his wife rest. The landmark is highlighted on several Cartagena history tours, and is a stop on the hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus routes.

Things to know before you go

• Admission to the Rafael Nuñez House Museum is free.

• Explanatory signs are only in Spanish, but some visitors use their phones to translate them.

• The two-story house doesn’t feature an elevator, which makes it difficult to navigate if you’re in a wheelchair or with a stroller.

How to get there

The Rafael Nuñez House Museum is located on Calle Real 41-89 in El Cabrero, a 3-minute walk from Cartagena’s Walled City, or around 20 minutes on foot from the center of the Old Town. There aren’t any public bus stops near the house, but hop-on, hop-off bus tours do stop there.

When to get there

The museum is open from Tuesday through Sunday, but is closed on Monday (as most of the city’s museums are). It’s open from morning until early evening during the week, and opens an hour later and closes an hour earlier on the weekends. It never gets too crowded, but visiting closer to opening time will increase your chances of a crowd-free experience.

Cartagena’s diverse museum scene

Cartagena boasts a culturally rich museum scene to rival that of Bogotá or Medellín. Housed in a colonial mansion in Plaza de Bolívar, the Zenú Gold Museum displays a glittering selection of gold artifacts from indigenous Cartagena cultures, while a cloister, museum and church trace the history of San Pedro Claver, known as an early human-rights advocate and the patron saint of enslaved people.