Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Cartagena has arrived and it’s spectacular

Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Cartagena opened this week in Getsemaní, occupying a carefully restored cluster of historic buildings steps from the UNESCO-listed Walled City and across from Parque Centenario. The location is not incidental. Getsemaní is one of Cartagena’s most alive and evolving neighbourhoods, and a Four Seasons landing here is a consequential thing.

The creative team assembled for the project is worth examining closely. The late François Catroux, whose vision for the former Club Cartagena (a 1920s landmark) sets the tone for the hotel’s heritage spaces, took this on as one of his final projects. His brief: Spanish colonial character in dialogue with contemporary elegance. Supporting that vision are WATG and Wimberly Interiors, AvroKO and SBM for food and beverage, Swiss landscape firm Enea Garden Design led by Colombian landscape architect Carolina Jaimes, and Lang Lighting Design. The local roster is equally substantive: sculptural plaster relief by Alejandro Hernández, large-scale landscape pieces by Eloin Rivera, in-room artworks by Miguel Cárdenas, and furniture and textiles by Colombian designer Poli Mallarino. The decision to anchor the creative team so substantially in Colombian talent is not decorative. It reflects something about how this particular project understands its place.

The 131 guest accommodations include 27 colonial-style rooms and suites in the heritage buildings. At the top of the collection sits the Catroux Suite, a two-bedroom presidential suite with private elevator access and a handcrafted Moorish-inspired ceramic fountain by María Cecilia Franco Berón on the furnished terrace.

Eight dining and bar venues bring real ambition to the food and beverage program. The Grand Grill and Bar Lelarge, both developed by Major Food Group in the former Club Cartagena spaces, anchor the heritage end of the offering. Bar Lelarge takes its name from Gastón Lelarge, the building’s original architect. Pizzeria Della Chiesa occupies what was once the Iglesia de la Veracruz and later the Teatro Cartagena. The layers here are not decorative; they are structural. The city’s history runs through the floor plan.

Then there are the residences. A limited collection of Private Residences by Rodriguez Valencia Arquitectos sits within the hotel, with full Four Seasons service and seamless access to all amenities. The details available at opening are thin, but the proposition is clear enough: a branded residence embedded in an authentically historic urban block, steps from a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in a city still very much in motion. In a market like this, the brand premium is not about novelty. It is about legacy.

For buyers watching Latin America, Cartagena has been on everyone’s radar. One thing is for sure, this property is one of our most anticipated to visit next.

Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Cartagena is located at Media Luna 8B, Getsemaní, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.