Carmen Conde literary route through Cartagena

Walk through Cartagena's old town in the footsteps of Carmen Conde, from the street where she was born to the harbour that inspired her first poems.

Type

Self-guided

On foot

Duration

At your own pace · self-guided route

Schedule

Price

Free

Meeting point

Parque de Artillería, Cartagena

Recommended app

Difficulty

Easy · old town on foot

Introduction

Carmen Conde's Cartagena

Did you know that Carmen Conde, the first woman to become a member of the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), wrote her first poems looking out over the port of Cartagena from the window of a shipyard? She was born in 1907 in an old-town street, worked tracing plans at the city's shipbuilding company and left when the Civil War broke out, but she never stopped writing about the city.

This Carmen Conde literary route was designed by the Carmen Conde – Antonio Oliver Trust, the City Council body that looks after the legacy of the writer and her husband, and it takes you through the streets, squares and buildings that appear in her novels and memoirs: La rambla, Destino hallado and Por el camino, viendo sus orillas. Get ready to see Cartagena through her eyes!

How it works

Self-guided, free and with her texts in PDF

The route starts at the Parque de Artillería, opposite Calle Serreta, where the writer lived for a time, and ends at the Muelle de Alfonso XII, looking out to sea. Along the way you'll pass the street where she was born, the church where she was baptised, the house where she lived with Antonio Oliver and the places where they founded the People's University.

It's a self-guided itinerary, so you can do it at your own pace. The Trust offers a free PDF with the route, with Carmen Conde's passages to read at each stop, and a map showing the stops. Download them before you set off and you won't miss a thing.

Below are the stops on the route and what awaits you at each one.

The stops on the route

Parque de Artillería – Start of the route, opposite Calle Serreta, where she lived in 1931 and 1932 and which she evokes in Destino hallado
Calle Canales – Cradle of the cartageneras flamenco song, which she recalls in La rambla
Calle de la Palma – She was born here on 15 August 1907 and lived here as a child
Plaza de Alcolea – Popularly known as Plaza de los Carros
Calle del Carmen – Scene of the 1919 flood she recounts in La rambla, with the Casa Dorda
Iglesia del Carmen – Where she was baptised, opposite her statue
Calle Santa Florentina – Origin of her pen name Florentina del Mar
Calle Puerta de Murcia – She lived at number 5 with Antonio Oliver until 1935
Gran Hotel – Next to the old Ateneo, where People's University events were held
Calle Jara – Home of the People's University she founded with Antonio Oliver
Iglesia de Santa María de Gracia – The burning of the Salzillo carvings in 1936, in Por el camino, viendo sus orillas
Calle San Miguel – The school she went to as a child
Casino de la Calle Mayor – A youthful anecdote she tells in her memoirs
Plaza del Ayuntamiento – The Palacio Consistorial, where she was named the city's Favourite Daughter
Muelle de Alfonso XII – End of the route, facing the sea, with views of the shipyard where she wrote Brocal, the lighthouses and Santa Lucía

The map

Route and main stops

Open interactive map

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