The Inquisition in Colombia: What a show in Cartagena

Rocio Rodriguez demonstrates the scale used to determine if a person was a witch at the Palace of the Inquisition in Cartagena, Colombia. PHOTO: Dennis D. Jacobs

With the waves of the Caribbean Sea lapping seductively at its feet and the lush Colombian hills beckoning enticingly at its back, the city of Cartagena has a serenely beautiful setting. As the canoodling couples in the windows of the old city’s wall will attest, it is a romantic city, a blissful city.

It’s hard then to imagine how anyone living here could engage in the sort of atrocities that took place in Cartagena over a span of more than 200 years.

The Inquisition began in Cartagena in 1610. In 1770, construction was completed on a two-story building for use by the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition.

“The building was built just for the Inquisition,” noted Rocio Rodriguez, who guided our group of five journalists on a tour of the structure. “The Inquisition became very cruel.”

That’s putting it kindly. Up to 800 people were tortured and eventually murdered in this building, which today is known simply as the Palace of the Inquisition. Recently restored, the edifice is now a museum dedicated to Cartagena’s history, with special emphasis on the Inquisition.

“The Inquisition was very strong in Cartagena,” explained Luis Araujo Rumie, executive president of Turismo Cartagena. “Part of it was because we had so many slaves with different cultures. They started practicing their own religious beliefs.”

Around the corner from the building’s front entrance, on the side of the structure along the Calle de la Inquisición,  is a small window topped by a cross. From this window, sentences were announced to the public.

The accused were alleged to have engaged in practices such as blasphemy, sorcery, or witchcraft. The first question generally asked during an Inquisition was “How long have you been a witch?” The questions continued along this line of “When did you stop beating your wife?” For example, another question commonly asked was “What demons and people attended your wedding?”

If the inquisitors were not satisfied with the answers they received, they might subject the accused to torture. Some of the instruments of torture used during the Inquisition in both Europe and Latin America are on display on the first floor of the museum. Not all of these were used in Cartagena, however, the rack was employed here. The accused were stripped and tied to cylinders on both ends of a long table. They were again asked questions and were given the opportunity to amend their answers before a hooded torturer turned wheels that tightened the ropes and stretched their bodies.

Araujo Rumie told us that once the questions were finished, the inquisitors put the accused to a final test: weight versus a feather. If they were found to weigh more than a feather, “they were tortured as witches and burned at the stake,” he said.

The Inquisition in Cartagena finally came to an end in 1821 after Colombia achieved independence from Spain. Araujo Rumie said when independence came to Cartagena, the citizens removed all the implements used by the Inquisition from the building and burned them. The second floor of the museum has displays explaining Cartagena’s important role in the struggle for independence. Also on this floor are a serious of exquisitely detailed dioramas of some of the city’s famous sites, such as the Church of Santo Domingo.

With its covered balconies of carved wood and interior courtyard typical of colonial architecture in Cartagena, the Palace of the Inquisition now is a place of serenity and beauty, where the only questions asked are “How much is the entrance fee?" (about $5) and “Do you need a brochure in English?" (yes). 

Related: The story of the most famous Colombian of them all -- Juan Valdez

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A note to my readers: I will be posting stories in greater detail about all of the cities on my tour of Colombia. My time and resources are somewhat limited while I am in the country, but once I return home I should have the time and the computing power to provide you with a much richer view of life in Colombia today.

Thank you,

Dennis D. Jacobs