Province of Cadiz - Cadiz villages - Andalucia, Spain

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Cadiz Information: PROVINCE OF CADIZ

Despite its three thousand years of history, the oldest city in the West dates in its current layout
from the eighteenth century, having succeeded in obtaining, in 1717, the trade monopoly with the
Indies. At the end of that century, it was said that the city of Cadiz was "beautiful, as well designed as she is built". For this reason it influenced the town planning of many cities in Latin America. It is also a nineteenth-century city, because in the Church of San Felipe Neri, the Spanish parliament studied and approved the first Spanish Constitution, in 1812. Since then Cadiz has always boasted of being a land of freedom. The Baroque elements of the city are made up of the Jesuit churches, Santo Domingo and El Carmen, with their ostentatious and elegant steeples; the Hospital de Mujeres or Women's Hospital, a masterpiece of its genere, together with many other places in the city, houses and palaces with pinnacles and glazed earthenware, high white vantage-points used to gaze out to the distant horizon to "see the boats come in".

The Cathedral is the last great cathedral built in Spain. It takes its inspiration from the cathedral in Granada in the organisation of the pillars and, particularly, in the semicircle of the high chapel, albeit with a simplification of the design. It also achieves an interesting movement of volumes, taken from Borromini. It is a three-nave temple, with ambulatory. The most striking feature is the series of circles around the high chapel, with a plethora of prolonged axes on along the side naves, transmitted to the faces of columns; the' transept also participates in this movement. The cathedral's supports are made up of three different types of columns and pillars that provide the interior with al movement and a sense of spaciousness. The present-day facade is Baroque in its origins, though this is gradually substituted by neo-classical elements the higher it reaches. It was begun in 1722 by Vicente Cayon, and was completed by Torcuato Acero.

The Provincial Museum contains part of the series painted by Zurbaran for the Carthusian monastery of Jerez de la Frontera, between 1637 and 1639. This is a series of portraits of Carthusia monks, among which it is difficult to forget the figures of Juan Houghton and Cardinal Albergati, for their mystical expression and the white of their habits. The museum has exhibits of great antiquity, such as the anthropoid Phoenician sarcophagus, clearly influenced by Greek sculpture.

Cadiz suffered frequent attacks by the English and Dutch in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To resist them, the authorities built the famous walls, a great deal of which has since disappeared. Elements that have survived from this defence system include the Candelaria bastion, the Santa Catalina and San Sebastian castles, though the most famous is the Puerta de Tierra, built in 1749 by the engineer Jose Samola. This gate is of a classical order, and has a facade with a coat of arms, and also features military trophies and lions. Cadiz is famous for the blue reflection of its bay, the sense of paradise when the west breeze blows, and the wit of its people, perhaps the most spontaneous in Andalusia. To call Cadiz senorita del mar (lady of the sea), salada claridad (salty clarity) or tacita de plata (silver cup) is an attempt to capture the imprecise seduction of this unique city.

	More about Cadiz
Cadiz Cadiz history Jerez de la Frontera Cadiz white villages The White Towns Centre of the province The bay and the coast Campo de Gibraltar

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