Tourist attractions in Medellín
Tourist attractions: the best places in and around Medellín, verified one by one.
- 13 places
- 12 zones
- average
Escalas eléctricas de la Comuna 13Las Independencias, San JavierThe Comuna 13 escalators opened in December 2011 as the first public and free ones in the country: six outdoor flights totalling 384 metres up the Las Independencias hillside. For anyone living at the top the change was concrete — the climb went from about thirty-five minutes on foot to around six — and that mobility project ended up changing the neighbourhood's relationship with the rest of the city.
Pueblito PaisaNutibaraPueblito Paisa crowns Cerro Nutibara with a replica of an Antioquian village square: church, town hall, school and balconied houses around a fountain. It is not a new set — it was built with elements and materials from the old town of El Peñol, which went under when the Peñol-Guatapé reservoir filled — and that provenance is what gives the ensemble its meaning.
Parque de las LucesLa CandelariaParque de las Luces occupies Plaza Cisneros, right downtown, facing the La Alpujarra administrative centre. It is made of three hundred concrete and metal posts up to twenty-four metres tall, arranged as an artificial forest that gives shade by day and lights up at nightfall with more than two thousand floodlights and well over a hundred floor lamps.
Parque de los Pies DescalzosLa AlpujarraParque de los Pies Descalzos came from a simple and unusual idea for an urban park: that you walk it without shoes. It was designed by the architect Felipe Uribe de Bedout for EPM, and is organised in three zones you cross in that order.- Top ratedMetrocable Medellín (Líneas K y L Arví)Acevedo / Santo DomingoThe Medellín Metrocable is the first urban aerial cable transport system in the world integrated with a metro. The ride on Line K climbs over the mountains of the north-eastern commune up to Santo Domingo, connecting with Line L, which flies over the misty cloud forest to the Parque Arví ecological reserve, with a 360-degree panoramic view of the whole Aburrá Valley.
- Top ratedPiedra del Peñol (La Roca de Guatapé)GuatapeThe undisputed geological and tourist icon of Antioquia and one of the most visited destinations in Colombia. A solid stone monolith 220 metres high that rises above the Guatapé reservoir. Climbing its 740 steps set into a natural crack leads to a viewing tower at the top that offers one of the most spectacular panoramic views on the planet, over a maze of green islands and hydroelectric lakes.
- Top ratedPuente de Occidente (José María Villa)Santa Fe De AntioquiaOne of the masterpieces of 19th-century civil engineering in Latin America, declared a National Monument of Colombia in 1978. Designed and built between 1887 and 1895 by the Antioquian engineer José María Villa (who took part in building the Brooklyn Bridge in New York), this majestic 291-metre suspension bridge, held up by four wooden towers, crosses the mighty waters of the Cauca River.
- Parque ExploraAranjuezParque Explora is the city's science and technology museum, and it is built to be touched: the open-air physics, neuroscience, music and time halls work through experimenting, not through reading labels.
- Parque NorteAranjuezParque Norte is Medellín's long-standing amusement park, and its appeal is the location: it sits inside the city, beside the Universidad metro station and facing the Botanical Garden, so you reach it without a car and without leaving the northern cultural corridor.
- Acuaparque DitairesItagüíThe Acuaparque Ditaires is Itagüí's public bathing complex and the most accessible water plan in the southern valley.
- Finca Silletera Reserva Del SilleteroSanta ElenaReserva del Silletero is one of the Santa Elena farms that receive visitors all year, not only in August. It sits in the El Rosario hamlet, in the district where the silletero tradition that shapes the Flower Fair lives.
- Parroquia Catedral Nuestra Señora del RosarioNorte del ValleThe cathedral of Nuestra Señora del Rosario presides over the eastern side of Girardota's main square, but what draws people is the image it holds: the Señor Caído, a carving brought from Quito more than two centuries ago and dated 1767.
- Parroquia Santa AnaSabanetaThe church of Santa Ana presides over Sabaneta's main square. Its construction began on 27 August 1896 and the temple opened in 1930: fired clay and mortar, a single tower rising from the atrium, and three naves on Roman arches.
Before you go
These are the places almost every visitor puts on their list and that locals recommend when someone comes to town: Pueblito Paisa on top of Nutibara hill, the Comuna 13 outdoor escalators, Parque Explora or the Parque de los Pies Descalzos. Several are free and the rest charge little, so you can fit two or three into the same day without spending much.
The trick is to group them by area. Explora and Parque Norte are in the north of the city, near Universidad Metro station and next to the Botanical Garden. Pies Descalzos and Parque de las Luces are downtown, not far from each other. Comuna 13 deserves half a day of its own. With children, Parque Norte or the Ditaires water park in Itagüí can fill a whole day.
The best known get crowded on weekends and during school holidays; on weekdays and early in the day they are calmer and better for photos. In Comuna 13 and downtown, put your phone away when you are not using it and stick to daylight hours. And if you go up to Santa Elena, where the Finca Silletera is, bring a warm layer: it is noticeably colder up there than in the city.
