Hotel Santa Clara — Cartagena, Colombia
About Hotel Santa Clara
Gabriel García Márquez visited in 1949 as a reporter covering the discovery of a crypt during excavations on the property; the one-time convent had housed the Poor Clares nuns, and generations of bishops and abbesses had been buried in its crypts. While workers were breaking open old tombs, one grave produced a skull with an attached mass of hair measuring about 22 meters long, reminding García Márquez of a story his grandmother used to tell him: a legend about a young marquise, said to have died of rabies from a dog bite, whose hair trailed like a bridal train and who was venerated locally for performing miracles. The experience inspired his novel, Of Love and Other Demons. The hotel now celebrates this connection: it has a Gabriel García Márquez Hall named for him, and the crypt area he witnessed being opened sits beneath what's now the hotel's El Coro Lounge Bar, accessible on tours.…
Literary significance
Not literary-themed exactly, but art-themed: the hotel has suites paying homage to two major Colombian artists, Fernando Botero and Olga de Amaral. Rooms are otherwise split between the original historic wing and a more modern "Republican" wing. Since Garcia Marquez visited long before the property was a hotel, no rooms are associated with his visit, and the hotel comes with historical credentials rather than literary ones.
Authors
Location
Calle del Torno 39-29, Barrio San Diego, Cartagena 130001, Colombia