Cadiz
11/9/15 • Written by Julianne
Cadiz pushed all our Spain buttons: great food and wine, charming street scenes and gracious squares, modern port facilities, and history from Phoenician times. We loved it. Perfect weather helped.
We drove in along the waterfront with this gorgeous modern bridge and easy highways. Many high-rise apartment blocks until we reached the UNESCO protected old town where we wandered. Although it's architecture is protected, the old town is definitely a place of modern business and with many residents going about their daily lives. We followed our noses to a square where the smell of fresh bread helped us find out where everyone was going. Us too--could not resist fresh bread.
Street scenes
Wandering along, many street scenes. Cadiz is justly proud that the first constitution was signed here in the early 1800's. The statue commemorates one of the patriots and is just in front of the bakery.
Central square and lunch
Further wandering got us to the central square in front of the 17C. cathedral where we and a few other tourists were finding great lunch. It is not a tourist season so most other patrons were local people.
The musicians and the bracelet-vendor did not get much custom so Nancy had sympathy and bought one of the ugliest bracelets on the planet.
Roman Republic and Empire
Rome defeated Carthage in the Punic wars in around 200 BC and put their mark on Cadiz. This Roman theatre was discovered in 1980 and has been in a process of excavation since then. It is directly above Phoenician remains, directly below the old cathedral. Rome used Cadiz port as a trading area for agricultural products and for fish resources to feed the growing republic and empire. Rome, under Augustus, conquered the whole of Spain and Cadiz became a full Roman city under Roman law.
Middle Ages and the Wealth of the Americas
Cadiz and most of the western part of Spain and Portugal were settled by the Visigoths as the Roman empire faded. Moors entered and colonized the area after about 700. Everyone loved the area of Cadiz--center of a good farming area and with vast marine resources and a safe port on the Atlantic. For tourists, little is to be seen specifically of these periods but the general area has remains of both.
As Spain returned to the hands of the Christian Spaniards, Cadiz was a frontier area for several hundred years with the territory just south "la frontera." This church and courtyard were the simple cathedral of the times.
As Spain became the maritime powerhouse and colonizer of the Americas, the wealth of the Andes and Mexico began to flow into the country through Cadiz--wealth previously unseen in Europe. A new cathedral in the Baroque style was built to celebrate and symbolize Cadiz importance. It dominates the city now, sitting between the Atlantic and the old city square. Nothing here of the Gothic arches which later came to dominate northern Europe. Baroque to Rococco to Neoclassic, the refined tastes of the era reflected the culture and wealth of the southern Mediterranean world.
Earliest History and Prehistory
Phoenician sailors from what is now Lebanon were the first settlers in historic times. They arrived in Cadiz about 600 BC and built a city for trading and exploiting the resources of the Atlantic and the estuary. They devised a method of fishing for the large Atlantic tuna found in the area and exported the fish to the Mediterranean world.
Our energy flagged and the Phoenician museum was actually closed--the story of Spain--so I was not able to learn much about who lived in the area prior to the Phoenicians. However, the general area was inhabited from Neanderthal days. The marine resources then and now are rich and could surely have supported a fairly large human population for many millennia.
Photos mostly by Nancy with a few from Julianne.
Text by Julianne.
Thoughts about bracelet--definitely Julianne.
Pretty good grafitti stencils and posters for the International Day of Eliminating Violence Against Women (UN declaration for November 25).