Casa del Reloj, Cartagena
Overview
the property in one pageIn San Diego, where the walled city still belongs to its neighbors, this eighteenth-century house keeps the name the quarter gave it — for the English clock that has ruled its zaguán since anyone can remember. Restored in 2019 under heritage supervision: five bedrooms around two patios, original calicanto walls a meter thick, and a rooftop terrace with the cathedral's dome as its only skyline.
The file that follows gathers everything needed to truly know it: its spaces one by one, the quarter around it, the complete arithmetic — including what heritage asks and what it forbids —, its verified papers and, at the end, its story.
“Walled-city houses divide into trophies and homes. The trophies gleam and echo. This one is a home that happens to be magnificent — the clock still wound, the patios still doing their ancient work of shade and breeze.”
Featured
Comforts
The spaces
a guided walkThe surroundings
the place around itThe local climate
Walled-city heat, engineered against for three centuries: meter-thick calicanto, five-meter ceilings and two patios pull a permanent draft the modern quarter cannot buy.
Distances
- Plaza de San Diego2 min walk
- The walls (sunset walk)3 min walk
- Portal de los Dulces8 min walk
- Rafael Núñez Airport15 min
- Bocagrande clinics12 min
- Getsemaní12 min walk
The character of the place
San Diego is the walled city's last neighborhood in the full sense: schoolchildren cross the plaza at seven, the fritanga corner opens at dusk, and tourism arrives on foot, looks around, and lowers its voice. Nights are lively until eleven and villages-quiet after.
In the Guide, near here
This dossier lives inside the Guide's map — follow the branches:
The numbers
honest arithmeticThe full cost of ownership
- Yearly property tax (est.)COP $21,000,000
- Heritage-grade upkeep (yearly, est.)COP $38,000,000
- Utilities (monthly avg.)COP $1,900,000
- House staff (monthly, current)COP $4,200,000
- Deed & registration (one-time, est.)COP $70,000,000
The Guide's editorial estimates, so you decide with complete arithmetic — confirmed during negotiation.
Payment simulator
Move the down payment and term to estimate a mortgage's monthly payment.
Illustrative simulation — not financial advice nor a credit offer. Real rates vary by bank and profile.
Documents & verification
the architecture of trust- ✓Title & liens certificate
- ✓Heritage (BIC) status file
- ✓2019 restoration licenses
- ✓Property tax clearance
- …The Guide's title study · in progress
Rules & uses
Sustainability
What you should know
The Guide tells what others omit: this is a Bien de Interés Cultural — the façade, the walls and the roofline are protected, and every intervention passes through heritage review with its own calendar. Humidity is a permanent tenant of any colonial house: the 2019 restoration installed proper barriers, but the yearly upkeep budgeted above is what keeps three centuries standing. And San Diego's charm has a schedule — horse carriages until ten, the fritanga corner's murmur until eleven.
Condition & works
- Structure & wallsRestored 2019 — monitored
- Roof (colonial tile)Rebuilt 2019
- Humidity barriersInspected yearly — current
- The clockServiced 2025 — keeps time
Accessibility
The story
the Guide's voiceThe house appears in notarial records of 1783 as property of a ship chandler; the English clock arrived with a granddaughter's dowry in 1834 and never left the zaguán. Five families and one requisition later, it reached the 2010s tired but intact — never subdivided, never gutted.
The 2019 restoration took twenty-six months and the patience of three heritage architects: calicanto repaired with period technique, baths carved only into former service voids, and the fountain's plumbing solved with a hidden loop that took four attempts. The restoration file — plans, licenses, photographs — travels with the house.
Its current owners ran it gently as a private house with occasional boutique seasons. They leave for reasons of tide and age, and ask its next owners one thing, informally but firmly: keep winding the clock.
A morning here
“At 6:10 the bells arrive half a second late and the patio smells of night jasmine finishing its shift. Coffee by the fountain, the clock's tick from the zaguán, and above the roofline the sky decides, unhurried, what kind of Caribbean day this will be.”
The next step is yours
Continue the search — Historic & Heritage Homes
A living dossier — it updates with the property. Last editorial review: August 5, 2026.