The Cathedral of Santa Marta faces the main Plaza Bolívar and is one of the oldest churches in the Americas still in regular use. The current building dates mostly from the 18th century, though the original church on this site was founded in the 1530s. The white stuccoed facade, with its pair of bell towers, presides over the plaza with a colonial authority that feels entirely appropriate in the oldest continuously inhabited city in South America.
Inside, the nave is cool and dim, with thick walls that keep out the coastal heat. The high altar and the side chapels retain colonial religious art and ornamentation, and the overall atmosphere is one of quiet gravity. The plaza in front is the social heart of the historic centre — benches fill up with locals in the evening, and the surrounding streets hold the best concentration of restaurants and colonial architecture in the city.