Sofitel Legend Santa Clara

The Hotel

Santa Clara opened on 26 February 1995 as Cartagena's first true international five-star, occupying the former Convent of the Poor Clares — the 1621 monastery built by the Order of Saint Clare on the site of an earlier 1577 Franciscan settlement at the edge of the walled city's San Diego barrio. The building stood as a working convent through the colonial period and as a hospital and military barracks through the 19th and 20th centuries before its 1992-1995 restoration to a hotel by the Colombian-Hilton-and-Hoteles Estelar group; the property was acquired by Sofitel and elevated to the Sofitel Legend tier on 23 March 2010, the brand's first South American property at that level. The architectural restoration preserved the original 1621 cloister, the central courtyard with its 350-year-old jicaro tree, the original cells (converted into the Heritage Suites), the colonial-period cellar (now the 1621 bar), and the original chapel (now the property's principal events space). The property's literary association is the second principal proposition: Gabriel García Márquez set the bulk of Of Love and Other Demons (1994) in the convent and based the cell where Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles is held on Cell 5, which the hotel preserves as a non-bookable heritage exhibit.

The 122 rooms — including 32 suites — divide between the original 1621 Convent Wing (47 Heritage rooms in the original Clarist cells, with restored stuccoed ceilings and heritage parquet) and the Republican Wing (75 contemporary five-star rooms in the 1995 architectural extension). Standard categories begin at 32 square metres in Convent Wing and at 38 in Republican; the Heritage Suite at 90 square metres is the milestone Convent category, with original 1621 walls; the Sofitel Suite at 110 sqm in the Republican Wing is the contemporary alternative. Bathrooms are travertine; bath products are Hermès, Sofitel Legend's signature.

Restaurant 1621 is the named fine-dining room — opened 1995 in the original convent refectory, with the original 1621 vaulted ceiling preserved overhead — running a contemporary Colombian-Caribbean register under chef Roberto Bolaños. El Coro is the all-day brasserie programme on the courtyard. The 1621 bar in the original cellar — accessed by descending the original colonial staircase — is the property's signature interior space, with a restored colonial-period vault and a Colombian-rum cellar programme. The pool is in the central courtyard surrounded by the original cloister; the Sofitel Spa runs five treatment rooms with the 1621 hammam (a converted colonial cistern as the principal bathing room).

The San Diego address is the booking proposition. From the front door it is two minutes on foot to Plaza San Diego, four minutes to Plaza Santo Domingo, six minutes to Plaza de los Coches, and eight minutes to the Cartagena Wall (Las Murallas) and the city's principal restaurant axis. The walking-Cartagena brief is unmatched. For travellers wanting the most architecturally significant Cartagena booking — particularly for honeymooners and milestone-anniversary travellers — Santa Clara is unambiguous. Hotel Charleston Santa Teresa is the Plaza-Santo-Domingo alternative; Casa San Agustín is the small-boutique alternative; Santa Clara is the heritage-and-convent flagship.

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