Cartagena was always a desirable conquest for pirates and enemies of the Spanish Crown; and for this reason, the defense of the city from these threats was a question of priority for its inhabitants from the first decades of the existence of the city. Once the primitive nucleus of Cartagena and the outlying district of Getsemani were fortified, there was a need to erect a structure on San Lazaro Hill that would prevent an enemy attack from its peak, since the hill dominated the walls and the only entrance to the city, the Media Luna Entrance in Getsemani. In addition, this hill was the intermediate point between the city and the nearby Popa Peak, where some heavy guns and canons were installed between 1769 and 1780 to cross fire with the castle and make an enemy attack more difficult from the large beach of Playon Grande in Pie de la Popa.

Four hundred years ago jesuits established in Cartagena and founded a school and a church in downtown. During the XVII century a father called Pedro Claver dedicated all his life to the protection of the african slaves and became saint 300 hundred years later. To keep alive his legacy, jesuits came back to the city at the end of XIX century and started to collect pieces for a museum that includes precolombian, religious and african caribbean art and, of course, the chamber and other spaces where the saint lived and died. Nowadays it is the museum with the most complete collection of religious art in Colombian coast, and the building preserves the spirit of Claver, the spirit of Human Rights.

This colonial plaza is surrounded by the Cathedral, the Palace of the Inquisition and a gold museum.

Museo del Oro Zenú is part of the regional network of Museo del Oro, Bogota. It hosts the golden adornments of the Zenú people that lived in the Caribean plains two thousand years ago, and their ceramics, and it states that Zenues still live and preserve their way of living near Cartagena.