Medellín: from Comuna 13 to the Metrocable

The Comuna 13, once among the city's most violent neighborhoods, today welcomes visitors along outdoor escalators installed in 2011 and walls covered in murals directly narrating the neighborhood's conflict and renewal history.

The Metrocable, a system of urban cable cars integrated into the metro since 2004, was the first in the world specifically designed to connect poor hillside neighborhoods to the rest of the city, not as a tourist attraction.

Plaza Botero, in the historic center, displays in the open air twenty-three bronze sculptures donated by artist Fernando Botero, all characterized by the exaggerated proportions that have made his style famous worldwide.

The Pueblito Paisa, a miniature replica of a typical colonial antioqueño village built on a central hill, offers from above a complete view of the entire valley where Medellín spreads.

The escalators of Comuna 13 were built as transport infrastructure for real residents, not as an attraction — yet today they are probably the city's most photographed stop.

Botero's sculptures, with their deliberately bloated forms, seem to comment from afar on this very capacity of Medellín to reinvent positively what once weighed heavily on its image.