Catedral de Santa Catalina de Alejandría

The Catedral de Santa Catalina de Alejandría features a heavy, ocher-colored tower that dominates the skyline of the Walled City. Construction began in fifteen seventy-five, but the structure faced immediate peril when Sir Francis Drake attacked Cartagena ten years later. A cannonball struck the building during the siege, leaving a hole in the roof that delayed progress for decades. Workmen finally finished the structure in the early seventeenth century, using thick stone walls designed to withstand both tropical heat and repeated naval bombardment.