From middle of past century Latin-American cities have undergone a fast growth of their urban centres. This quick process of growth has caused, as in the case of the historical Centre of Barranquilla, problems around its urban functionality, which has originated that national and local public policies focus on solving this problem via urban recovery. The present paper sets out the main characteristics around process of urban recovery of the historical centre of Barranquilla. The analysis is based mainly on a revision