1998 - 2001

In 1998 the architects Pedro Ibarra and Jaime Correa took on the task of designing a project that would enhance the value of the old Joaquín F. Vélez Park, under the ruins of the Parque del Reloj Floral, located in front of the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas. The latter was designed by the architect José Rojas Beleño in 1972 and shone for a decade, until it fell out of favor due to administrative disarray and abandonment at the end of the last millennium. However, it was still present in the collective imagination of Cartagena. On February 2, 2000, the donation of the architectural design for the remodeling of the Parque del Reloj Floral to the Cartagena Public Improvements Society Sociedad was formalized. The administration of Mayor Gina Benedetti contracted the engineering studies and the works were carried out in 2001 with a budget of $40,000 USD by the firm of the engineer José España and the architectural supervision of the architect Jaime Correa Vélez. The new urban design recovered the original axis of the Joaquín F. Vélez park, releasing the visual of the San Felipe de Barajas Castle and configuring a set of reinforced concrete perimeter planters, whose landscaping was in the charge of the Verde que te Quiero Verde Foundation. A 13 meter diameter sundial unique in Latin America is displayed today on the ruins of the ancient floral clock. The shadow of a Gnomón in reinforced concrete marks the padding of the hours on the mathematical diagram embedded in the floor. The essence of the park remains the same, but now standing next to the Gnomonic artifact, numerous tourists publish photos with friendly comments from the park with the San Felipe de Barajas Castle as a backdrop in a recovered public space that for two decades was “no-man's” land.