Explore Cartagena

The Molinete Roman Forum Museum in Cartagena is the entrance to the archaeological park on Molinete hill, the Arx Asdrubalis of Roman Carthago Nova. After rooms of finds, the route leads through the colonial forum, the curia with its marble floor, a sanctuary of Isis, the port baths and the Atrium Building with its painted walls.

The Roman Theatre of Cartagena was built between 5 and 1 BC in the colony of Carthago Nova and seated about 6,000 spectators. Buried under later houses and partly under the old cathedral, it was found by chance in 1988; visitors reach the restored seating, orchestra and stage front through the theatre museum.

The Museum of the Roman Theatre of Cartagena, designed by Rafael Moneo and opened in 2008, leads from the Palacio de Riquelme on the town hall square through a passage beneath the old cathedral to the excavated Roman theatre. Its rooms show the theatre's marble altars, statues and column capitals.

The National Museum of Underwater Archaeology (ARQVA) is Spain's state museum of finds from the sea, in a building on Cartagena's harbour front opened in 2008. Its galleries trace shipping and trade from the Phoenician wrecks of Mazarrón to the coins recovered from the frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes.