Sofitel Legend Santa Clara

In October 1949 a young reporter from El Universal was sent to the old convent of Santa Clara in Cartagena to watch the crypts being emptied before the building was rebuilt. One tomb, he wrote later, held the skeleton of a girl with copper hair twenty-two metres long. The reporter was Gabriel García Márquez, and the convent became the Sofitel Legend Santa Clara, Cartagena, a hotel of 123 rooms in the San Diego quarter of the walled city. The crypt is still there, under the bar.

History

The Poor Clares founded the convent in 1621 on land given by the city, and the nuns lived behind its walls for more than two centuries, the daughters of Cartagena's leading families among them. The order was expelled in 1861 under the anticlerical laws of the period, and the building passed through uses that included a hospital. By the 1990s it was in poor repair. Accor restored it and opened it as a Sofitel in 1995, a luxury hotel in Cartagena's walled city when the old town had few hotels of any kind, keeping the cloister, the chapel and the choir. In 2010 the group gave it the Sofitel Legend designation reserved for its historic houses. García Márquez, who kept a house across the street in San Diego, published Of Love and Other Demons in 1994, drawing on the exhumation he had witnessed as a reporter.

Architecture and design

The convent is a two-storey block of coral stone and lime around a large cloister planted with palms and tropical trees, with the original arcades on both levels. The former chapel and choir hold the bar and function rooms, and the crypt with its tombs opens off the bar. A modern wing, the Republican wing, was added behind the convent to house most of the guest rooms around the swimming pool, in a style that follows the arcaded courtyards of the old town. Colonial furniture, iron lanterns and the thick walls of the original building set the tone in the public rooms.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 123 rooms and suites split between the colonial building and the newer wing. Rooms in the convent have high ceilings, wooden beams and windows onto the cloister; those in the Republican wing have balconies over the pool and gardens, and the top suites look towards the sea over the city walls. Interiors mix colonial pieces with modern Sofitel furniture.

Dining

Restaurant 1621, named for the convent's founding year, serves French-influenced cooking with Caribbean fish and Colombian produce in the former refectory and on the cloister. El Coro bar, in the old choir, has live music most nights and a long rum and gin list, and is where guests go down to see the crypt. A pool bar and a café on the cloister cover the day.

Wellness

So Spa occupies a wing of the hotel with treatment rooms, a hammam and a sauna, and the outdoor pool is the largest among the old town's hotels. There is a fitness centre.

Weddings and events

The hotel is the walled city's principal venue for weddings and conferences. The former chapel takes ceremonies and the cloister takes dinners and receptions among the palms, with several function rooms in the convent for meetings. Weddings here typically begin with a ceremony in one of the old town's churches and continue in the cloister, and planners should confirm current capacities with the hotel.

Location

San Diego is the quiet north-eastern corner of the walled city, between the Plaza de San Diego and the ramparts. The hotel stands on the Calle del Torno, a few steps from the walls and the sea, and the Plaza de Santo Domingo and the cathedral are about ten minutes on foot. Rafael Núñez International Airport is about fifteen minutes by car. Cruise passengers and day visitors crowd the streets by midday; the cloister is where guests retreat.