wolfmanshouse

Discovering Cartagena

More Articles By Phillip Bruce www.raxomnium.com

The Wolf Man’s House

One of the building’s that used to belong to a great mining baron of the 19^th and early 10^th centuries is quietly falling down at the little bay town of Portman, over the hills from the La Manga Club.

This once elegant edifice has been quietly rotting away for several decades now. Why it is in such a state isn’t clear but it seems that discussions about restoration have dragged on forever.

Once this would have been a sizeable residential building, with a fine garden to the front and a large mirador balcony with a zinc cupola where those inside could observe life passing by in the streets outside. The house, which was completed in 1913, was designed by architect Victor Beltri Roquetas, who was responsible for many of Cartagena’s most distinguished buildings.

The building was built for Miguel Zapata Saez (1841-1918) who was known as The Wolf for reasons that are not exactly explained but the name probably related to his business skills and ruthlessness. One explanation has it that the image of a wolf appeared on the truck money issued to his workers while another says that the wolf appeared on the bars of lead produced by his mines.

Certainly, he made a vast fortune from the mines of the Sierra Minera and from other activities, including shipping and trading. He was also very active politically. His main palatial home can be seen on the north side of the Plaza España in Cartagena. It is now used as a school.

The wolf man’s house at Portman can be found a little way up the hill behind the main street in La Union. You can peer through the rusting ornamental railings and wonder why it is in such a state.

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