Historic Centre of Santa Cruz de Mompox

The Magdalena River made Santa Cruz de Mompox: founded on its banks in 1540, the town channelled Spain's push into northern South America and grew in a ribbon along the water, its main street doubling as a dyke. Commerce moved on long ago, leaving a historic centre of rare harmony where most buildings still serve their original purposes — a Spanish colonial river town caught whole. UNESCO inscribed it in 1995.