Guide turistiche

Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of the same name, a province which is one of the eight comprising the autonomous community of Andalusia.

Cadiz, the oldest continuously-inhabited city in western Europe, has been a principal home port of the Spanish Navy since the accession of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century. It is also the site of the University of Cadiz.

Its peculiar location at the end of a narrow peninsula protruding into the Bay of Cadiz lends added charm to this ancient city. In actuality, Cadiz is on an island which is separated from the mainland by a larger island, the Isla de Léon; thus, to reach the mainland from Cadiz, it is necessary to cross a narrow channel to the low-lying Isla de Léon, before crossing another narrow channel to the mainland. This geographical circumstance has played, time and again, a significant part in the city's history, commerce, and culture. Isolated behind its high thick medieval walls on its improbable site in the middle of the bay, Cadiz, on approach from the sea, presents a dramatic and aesthetically appealing view.

Despite its unique site, Cadiz is, in most respects, a typically Andalusian city with a wealth of attractive vistas and well-preserved historical landmarks. The older part of Cadiz, within the remnants of the city walls, is commonly referred to as the Old City (in Spanish, Casco Antiguo). It is characterized by the antiquity of its various quarters (barrios), among them El Populo, La Viña, and Santa Maria, which present a marked contrast to the newer areas of town. While the Old City's street plan consists largely of narrow winding alleys connecting large plazas, newer areas of Cadiz typically have wide avenues and more modern buildings. In addition, the city is dotted by numerous parks where exotic plants, including giant trees supposedly brought to Spain by Columbus, flourish.


History


The city was originally founded as Gadir (Phoenician ??? "walled city") by the Phoenicians, who used it in their trade with Tartessos, a city-state believed by archæologists to be somewhere near the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, about thirty kilometres northwest of Cadiz. (Its exact location has never been firmly established.)
Phoenician sarcophagus found in Cadiz, now in the Archaeological Museum of Cadiz. The sarcophagus is thought to have been designed and paid for by a Phoenician merchant and made in Greece
Phoenician sarcophagus found in Cadiz, now in the Archaeological Museum of Cadiz. The sarcophagus is thought to have been designed and paid for by a Phoenician merchant and made in Greece

Cadiz is the most ancient city still standing in western Europe[1]. Traditionally, its founding is dated to 1104 BCE (Velleius Paterculus' Hist. Rom. I.2.1-3), although no archaeological strata on the site can be dated earlier than the 9th century BCE. One resolution for this discrepancy has been to assume that Gadir was merely a small seasonal trading post in its earliest days.

Later, the Greeks would know the city as Gadira or Gadeira. According to Greek legend, Gadir was founded by Hercules after performing his fabled tenth labor, the slaying of Geryon, a monstrous warrior-titan with three heads and three torsos joined to a single pair of legs. As late as the early third century BCE, a tumulus (a large earthen mound) near Cadiz was associated with Geryon's final resting-place.

One of the city's notable features during antiquity was the temple dedicated to the Phoenician god Melqart. (Melqart was associated with Hercules by the Greeks.) According to the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, the temple was still standing at the beginning of the third century CE. Some historians, based in part on this source, believe that the columns of this temple were the origin of the myth of the pillars of Hercules.[3]

Around 500 BCE, the city fell under the sway of Carthage. Cadiz became a base of operations for Hannibal's[4] conquest of southern Iberia. However, in 206 BC, the city fell to Roman forces under Scipio Africanus. The people of Cadiz welcomed the victors. Under the Romans, the city was renamed Gades and flourished as a Roman naval base. By the time of Augustus, Cadiz was home to more than five hundred equites (members of one of the two upper social classes), a concentration of notable citizens rivaled only by Padua and Rome itself. It was the principal city of a Roman colony, Augusta Urbs Julia Gaditana. However, with the decline of the Roman Empire, Gades's commercial importance began to fade.

The 5th century overthrow of Roman power in Spain by the Visigoths saw the destruction of the original city, of which there remain few remnants today. Under Moorish rule between 711 and 1262, the city was called Qadis (Arabic ????), from which the modern Spanish name, Cadiz, was derived. The Moors were finally ousted by Alphonso X of Castile who, in 1262, chased the Moors.

During the Age of Exploration, the city experienced a renaissance. Christopher Columbus sailed from Cadiz on his second and fourth voyages, (see Voyages of Christopher Columbus) and the city later became the home port of the Spanish treasure fleet. Consequently, the city became a major target of Spain's enemies. The 16th century also saw a series of failed raids by Barbary corsairs. The greater part of the old town was consumed in the conflagration of 1569. In April 1587 a raid by the Englishman, Sir Francis Drake, occupied the harbour for three days, capturing six ships and destroying 31 others as well as a large quantity of stores. The attack delayed the sailing of the Spanish Armada by a year.[2] The city suffered another raid in 1596 by the Earl of Essex and Lord Charles Howard, who sacked part of the town but were unable to hold the city and port. In the Anglo-Spanish War Admiral Robert Blake blockaded Cadiz from 1655 to 1657. In the 1702 Battle of Cadiz, the British attacked again under Sir George Rooke and James, Duke of Ormonde, but they were repelled after a costly siege.

In the 18th century, the sand bars of the river Guadalquivir forced the Spanish government to transfer the port monopolizing trade with Spanish America from upriver Seville to Cadiz on the Atlantic coast. During this time, the city experienced a golden age during which three-quarters of all Spanish trade was with the Americas. It became one of Spain's greatest and most cosmopolitan cities and home to trading communities from many countries, among whom the richest was the Irish community. Many of today's historic buildings in the Old City date from this era.

By the end of the century, however, the city suffered another series of attacks. The British blockade and siege of Cadiz between February, 1797 and April, 1798 was, by most standards, a costly failure. Nelson, returning from his defeat at Santa Cruz, bombarded the city in 1800. During Napoleon's conquest of Europe, Cadiz was one of the few cities in Spain that was able to resist the French invasion.

Members of the Irish community in eighteenth-century Cadiz prospered, particularly in the last quarter of that century. Their success was due mainly to their achievement as merchants engaged in the colonial trade. Small in number compared to other immigrant groups, they played a disproportionately prominent role in civic and ecclesiastical life, and as patrons of the arts in their adopted city. Their success stories in Cadiz contrast starkly with the lack of opportunity available to them in Ireland. Nevertheless, they did maintain vigorous mercantile and dynastic connections with their homeland. Their accomplishments were all the more remarkable in that they were achieved against a background of fierce competition in Europe's most dynamic entrepôt of the day.[5] It is a connection that continutes to this day.

Cadiz was also the seat of the liberal Cortes (parliament) that fought against Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte (also known as Joseph I of Spain) in the Peninsular War and where the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was proclaimed. The citizens again revolted in 1820 to secure a renewal of this constitution; the revolution spread across Spain, leading to the imprisonment of King Ferdinand VII in the city of Cadiz. French forces secured the release of Ferdinand in 1823 and suppressed liberalism. In 1868, Cadiz was once again the seat of a revolution, resulting in the eventual abdication and exile of Queen Isabella II. (The same Cadiz Cortes decided to reinstate the monarchy under King Amadeo I just two years later.)

In recent years, the city has undergone much reconstruction. Many monuments, cathedrals, and landmarks have been cleaned and restored, adding to the considerable charm of this ancient city.


Landmark Buildings


Cadiz Cathedral
One of Cadiz's most famous landmarks is its cathedral. It sits on the site of an older cathedral, completed in 1260, which burned down in 1596. The reconstruction, which was not started until 1776, was supervised by the architect Vicente Acero, who had also built the Granada Cathedral. Acero left the project and was succeeded by several other architects. As a result, this largely baroque-style cathedral was built over a period of 116 years, and, due to this drawn-out period of construction, the cathedral underwent several major changes to its original design. Though the cathedral was originally intended to be a baroque edifice, it contains rococo elements, and was finally completed in the neoclassical style. Its chapels have many paintings and relics from the old cathedral and monasteries from throughout Spain.


The Gran Teatro Falla (Falla Grand Theatre)
The original Gran Teatro was constructed in 1871 by the architect García del Alamo, and was destroyed by a fire in August, 1881. The current theatre was built between 1884 and 1905 over the remains of the previous Gran Teatro. The architect was Adolfo Morales de los Rios, and the overseer of construction was Juan Cabrera de la Torre. The outside was covered in red bricks and is of a neo-Mudejar or Moorish revival style. Following renovations in the 1920s, the theatre was renamed the Gran Teatro Falla, in honor of composer Manuel de Falla, who is buried in the crypt of the cathedral. After a period of disrepair in the 1980s, the theatre has since undergone extensive renovation.


The Tavira tower
In the 18th century, Cadiz had more than 160 towers from which local merchants could look out to sea for arriving merchant ships. These towers often formed part of the merchants' houses. The Torre Tavira, named for its original owner, stands as the tallest remaining watchtower. It has a camara oscura, a room that uses the principal of the pinhole camera (and a specially-prepared convex lens) to project panoramic views of the Old City onto its interior walls. (Also see the article titled Widow's walk.)


The Admiral's House
The Casa del Almirante is a palatial house, adjacent to the Plaza San Martín in the Barrio del Pópulo, which was constructed in 1690 with the proceeds of the lucrative trade with the Americas. It was built by the family of the admiral of the Spanish treasure fleet, the so-called Fleet of the Indies, Don Diego de Barrios. The exterior is sheathed in exquisite red and white Genoan marble, prepared in the workshops of Andreoli, and mounted by the master, García Narvaez. The colonnaded portico, the grand staircase under the cupola, and the hall on the main floor are architectural features of great nobility and beauty. The shield of the Barrios family appears on the second-floor balcony.


The Plazas
The old town of Cadiz is one of the most densely populated urban areas in Europe, and is packed with narrow streets. The old town benefits though from five striking plazas, which are enjoyed by citizens and tourists alike. These are Plaza de Mina, Plaza San Antonio, Plaza de Candelaria, Plaza de San Juan de Dios and Plaza de España.


Plaza de Mina
Located in the heart of the old town, Plaza de Mina, (the most beautiful of the Cadiz plazas) was developed in the first half of the nineteenth century. Previously, the land occupied by the plaza was the orchard of the convent of San Francisco. The plaza, was converted into a plaza in 1838 by the architect Torcuato Benjumeda and (later) Juan Daura, with its trees being planted in 1861. It was then redeveloped again in 1897, and has remained virtually unchanged since. It is named after General Francisco Espoz y Mina, a hero of the war of independence. Manuel de Falla y Matheu was born in Number 3 Plaza de Mina, where a plaque bears his name. The plaza also contains several statues, one of these is a bust of José Macpherson (a pioneer in the development of petrography, stratigraphy and tectonics) who was born in number 12 Plaza de Mina in 1839. The Museum of Cadiz, is to be found at number 5 Plaza de Mina, and contains many objects from Cadiz's 3000 year history as well as works by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens. The houses which face the plaza, many of which can be classified as neo-classical architecture or built in the style of Isabelline Gothic, were originally occupied by the Cadiz bourgeoisie.


Plaza San Antonio
In the 19th century Plaza San Antonio was considered to Cadiz’s main square. It is a beautiful square, surrounded by a number of mansions built in neo-classical architecture or Isabelline Gothic style, once occupied by the Cadiz upper classes. San Antonio church, originally built in 1669, is also situated in the plaza,
The plaza was built in the 18th century, and on 19 March 1812 the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was proclaimed here, leading to the plaza to be named Plaza de la Constitución, and then later Plaza San Antonio, after the hermit San Antonio.


Plaza de Candelaria
The Plaza de Candelaria is named after the Candelaria convent, situated in the square until it was demolished in 1873, when its grounds were redeveloped as a plaza. The plaza is notable for a statue in its centre of Emilio Castelar, president of the first Spanish republic, who was born in a house facing the square. A plaque situated on another house, states that Bernardo O'Higgins, an Irish-Chilean adventurer and former dictator of Chile also, lived in the square.


Plaza de San Juan de Dios and the Old Town Hall
Construction of this plaza began in the 15th century on lands reclaimed from the sea. With the demolition of the City walls in 1906 the plaza increased in size and a statue of the Cadiz politician Segismundo Moret was unveiled. Overlooking the plaza, the Ayuntamiento is the town hall of Cadiz's Old City. The structure, constructed on the bases and location of the previous Consistorial Houses (1699), was built in two stages. The first stage began in 1799 under the direction of architect Torcuato Benjumeda in the neoclassical style. The second stage was completed in 1861 under the direction of García del Alamo, in the Isabelline Gothic (in Spanish, "Gótico Isabelino" or, simply, the "Isabelino") style. Here, in 1936, the flag of Andalusia was hoisted for the first time.