Iglesia de San Pedro Claver

Church and museum dedicated to the patron saint of enslaved people

The Iglesia de San Pedro Claver is one of the most significant churches in Colombia, both architecturally and historically. The attached museum occupies the cloisters where Pedro Claver lived and worked from his arrival in 1616 until his death in 1654. The three-story colonial building surrounds a courtyard with a fountain and tropical plants.

The museum displays colonial-era religious art, artifacts from Claver's life, and exhibits on the history of the African slave trade through Cartagena. The church interior has fine gold altars and carved stonework. San Pedro Claver's remains — preserved and displayed in a glass casket at the main altar — are a major draw for Catholic pilgrims. Allow an hour for the combined church and museum visit.

things to do sight church museum
A story
Pedro Claver was a 17th-century Spanish Jesuit priest who spent over 40 years in Cartagena ministering to enslaved Africans arriving through the port — Cartagena was the largest slave-trading port in the Americas. He baptised an estimated 300,000 people and was canonised in 1888, the first person born in the New World to be canonised. His remains are in a glass case in the church altar, and his cell — bare stone, a wooden board for a bed — can be seen in the museum. The contrast between the ornate church and the conditions he chose to live in is striking.