Return to the List of Walks in Cadiz

Click on the button above to bring up the map for this walk.

As I mentioned earlier, the four Cadiz walks actually begin in the centrally-located Plaza de San Juan de Dios. But since we are already here, in Plaza de la Constitution, at the end of Walk #1, we will do that walk backwards, starting here and ending in the Plaza de San Juan de Dios.

Stop 15: Puerta de Tierra

The Land Gate is an architectural monument which is a stronghold of the wall that was the original entrance to the city of Cadiz. Built by Torcuato Cayon in the eighteenth century, the top is carved in marble and was designed more as a religious altarpiece than as a military fortification. It is one of the most significant monuments of the city and today separates the Old Town (popularly known as "Cadiz" or "Cadiz Cadiz") and the modern city (popularly known as "Earth Gate" or "Outside the Walls").

In the sixteenth century the first wall was built across the narrow isthmus at this spot; it had only one archway for horses, carriages and cannon, and two small walkways for people. In 1574, the structure was enlarged with the addition of two bastions that had the familiar Spanish turrets. In the eighteenth century it acquired its definite meaning- the "Land Gate," since it went from water to water. (In modern times, land has been added on the eastern side to accommodate port facilities, railway lines and highways, and so the wall no longer touches water on both sides.) We could see some of the military exhibits in the central archway.

In the center of the building is a marble doorway designed by Joseph Barnola in 1756. For the facade that leads into the city was built a marble portico as a triumphal arch, and there are quite nice sculptures atop the columns flanking the arch. You can see those sculptures here and here. The Tower of Land Gate was built in late 1850 to serve as Tower No. 57 in a visual telegraph line for Andalusia. Using methods that extend back into antiquity, messages could be received from Madrid in about two hours, if weather conditions permitted. There are many pictures and some written texts showing the tower operational from 1851 until late 1857, when it was replaced by electric telegraph poles. The Tower of Puerta de Tierra, no longer used, was known in the late nineteenth century as the "Tower Mathé", in memory of José María Mathé, the director of the Optical Telegraph Lines Co. (who also created the Telegraph Corps in 1855).

Click on the thumbnails below to see some additional views here at Puerta de Tierra:

We did a good deal of walking around here at Puerta de Tierra, including a stroll out the gate to the southeaast.

In the first half of the twentieth century the city had grown so much beyond the walls (you can see some of Cadiz outside the gate here and here) that the possibility of demolishing the whole thing to allow greater access to vehicles downtown was considered seriously. Fortunately, this important element of the history of Cadiz was preserved when it was decided to open two new arches in the wall. These modifications were carried out by the architect Antonio Sanchez Esteve, and the flag of his canton flies above the wall today. I walked southeast outside the gate for a ways to come to this interesting modern sculpture. The writing was in Spanish and Greg wasn't around, so its meaning is something of a mystery.

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We walked from the Plaza over to the beach- just a block. There, we got very pretty views back towards old Cadiz, and there were a couple of sculpture pieces along the shore walkway that were interesting. Click the thumbnails below for some additional views from here:

I made a movie here, and you can watch it with the player at left.

Then, using our little guide map, we went around the south end of the walls back towards the old city for the next stop on our walk.

Stop 14: Cárcel Real

Just a couple of blocks down the avenue towards the center of old Cadiz is the building of the Royal Prison- one of the emblematic buildings that were constructed in Cadiz during the time of the Enlightenment.

In 1792, the city of Cadiz decided to build a new, better, more "compassionate" prison. The building was designed in 1794 by Torcuato Benjumeda; he designed in the newly-fashionable Neoclassical Style as opposed to the prevailing Baroque- now considered decadent and even distasteful. Construction began in 1794, but funding and legal problems delayed the construction. It did not help that Benjumeda died during construction. The building finally came into use in 1836, the leg closest to the sea having been completed by Benjumeda's fellow architect Juan Daura. A major renovation was completed in 1990, enabling the building to house the Courts.

The building is, without doubt, the Andalusian Neoclassical masterpiece, and it now houses the House of Latin America, a cultural center run by the Municipal Cádiz 2012 with several rooms for exhibitions, meetings and cultural events. The building is rectangular and perfectly symmetrical, with a square central courtyard and two other minor rectangular atria. Tuscan pilasters frame the windows. The main body of the facade has four Tuscan columns attached. Atop the facade are the royal lions. It was tough to get good pictures as we were so close to the building.

Above the main entrance was an inscription that reads: "Hate the crime, pity the offender," a phrase attributed to the architect Arenal. Romero de Torres in his "Catalogue of Monumental Spain - Cádiz Province," remarked that he was "the best civil architect in Cadiz" and "if not for the legend (cited above) one would think that the building housed a museum or perhaps a literary center."

Stop 13: Convento de Santa Maria

Two blocks west of the prison, our little map had us turn right, cross the avenue, and head down Calle Santa Maria towards the Convento de Santa Maria.

It was at this point that we noticed the green line painted in the cobblestones of the street. It did not take long for us to connect the green line with the little walking guide that we were carrying.

On that guide, four walking tours were marked in different colors- orange, blue, purpose and green. I had thought that the colors were different so that at the places where the tours crossed, covered the same ground or went down the same street you could keep on the right path. That may indeed have been the purpose in the brochure, but someone had helpfully painted lines in the same colors on the pavement of streets, sidewalks and plazas. Now we didn't have to keep consulting the guide to see when to turn and which way; all we had to do was follow the line.

Now, having just realized that we had help in our walks, we promptly missed a line that turned off to Stop 13. When we got to stops 12 and 11, and realized that we'd missed one, we had to retrace our path a couple of blocks to find the "spur" that took us to the Convento. I am going to put the pictures in order here, even though they were in the "wrong" order when we took them.

Convento de Santa Maria

The Convent of Santa Maria de Cadiz was founded in 1527 under the patronage of Our Lady of Conception, for a community of Franciscan Conceptionists in what was the Chapel of Santa Maria del Arrabal.

In 1596 Cadiz suffered the worst assault in its history, by joint Anglo-Dutch fleet, during which the church was besieged and burned. It was rebuilt in 1605 under the direction of the architect Luis Ramirez as a simple rectangular church with a single nave and barrel vault. In 1616 , under the patronage of the Genoese merchant Stephen Blanqueto , significant improvements were made, including a new, taller Chapel. The manager of the project was the then Mayor of Cadiz; he influenced the design towards the Mannerist style seen in Seville.

Later, a new chapel for the Guild of the Nazarene was added, along with a new space for the presbytery. The space between the chapel and the convent was closed in, and a new, sober and elegant facade was created- including a pair of Doric columns on each side of the door. The tower was also renovated. We did not go inside the small church, but just admired the outside decoration. You can see some of this decoration if you click on the thumbnails below:

Stop 12: Casa Lasquetty

Perhaps because it is undergoing renovation, and perhaps because we did not see a sign, we did not stop at Casa Lasquetty. The building was a mansion in the 18th century, but fell into disuse. It was converted at some point into apartments. The only information I can find on it is an article from a Cadiz newspaper that ran in late 2010. The article says that a local construction firm has finally got the go-head to renovate the building. The project had been on hold for four years. The article said that "St. Mary Street is again upside down but this time for good cause...For fifteen days, the workers are inside the building doing the first work and working at top speed for the earliest conclusion of a work which seems eternal." The article went on to say that the work would take over a year, which may explain why we missed the building and the lack of signage.

Stop 11: Arco de los Blanco

Arco de los Blanco

Arco de los Blanco is part of the east gate of the city wall built in the thirteenth century by Alfonso X the Wise. This wall was of brick and lime, with battlements and towers made of three canvases that faced the west, north and east, the south was uncovered because of difficult access. This door, in the form of a pointed arch and barrel vault, overlooked the isthmus area, so it was also called Puerta de Tierra. Later, it was named Santa Maria, because it overlooked the suburb of that name.

It was partially restored in the early 17th century and in 1621 a family of merchants by the name of White, asked permission to establish in it a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Remedies, completed in 1635 and now lost. The only remaining part of the wall, gate or chapel is this series of arches.

Centro de Arte Flamenco (Not on Map)

The Centro de Arte y Flamenco de Cadiz is actually a Flamenco school, created by singer Esperanza Fernández and dancer Miguel Vargas of Seville; it is intended to advance the teaching, promotion and professionalization of flamenco. The Cadiz center is in a new building in the old city and has, as its objective, showing flamenco not only as an historical art, whose cultural importance is great, but also as a profession, one that requires the most qualified preparation possible.

Being a new commercial establishment, the center was not on the medieval walk, but we thought it interesting nevertheless- if only for the sculpture outside.

This part of old Cadiz seemed newer, or recently renovated. Fred took a lot of pictures here, and you can see four representative ones if you will click on the thumbnails below:

We could see another church nearby, but it did not seem to be on our walk either, but since it was close, we went up the street in front of the center to have a look.

Iglesia de la Merced (Not on Map)

We could see the bell tower of a church from our route as we arrived at the Flamenco Center, and that is one thing that attracted us to go off the green line for a moment and check it out.

We did not see any activity when we got to the church; as we learned later, the Iglesia de la Merced was originally a relatively small, neighborhood chapel but was, some years ago, transformed into the municipal auditorium. Services are still held here on special occasions. Click on the thumbnails below to see some of our pictures taken here at Iglesia de la Merced:

I made a movie here, and you can watch it with the player below:

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Stop 10: Posada del Meson (Posada's Inn)

This building, which used to be an inn, was constructed in the 17th century, and is a small part of the complex around the Roman Theatre. It is going to be repurposed to house the Interpretive Theatre Center for the Roman Theatre, and also a museum and study center.

We had a bit of confusion with this stop and the Roman Theatre itself (see below, Stop #6). The problem was that we missed them, having taken a slightly wrong turn after the Iglesia de la Merced. We found ourselves back at the oceanside, and had to wander around a bit (and check our map) to get back to the green line. By the time we realized that we had bypassed both stops, we were already well into our tour around the new Cathedral, and didn't feel like backtracking.

Between the Iglesia and our next stop, Casa del Almirante, we did take some good pictures, and I'll just include thumbnails for them below. Click on those thumbnails to look at as many as you wish.

Stop 9: Casa del Almirante (The Admiral's House)

Built by Admiral Diego de Barrios at the end of the 17th century, this house is a fine example of a Baroque palace. One notices immediately the characteristic common to this type of palace- the pre-eminence given to the doorway. This one is in marble from Gênes, from the workshop of Andreoli and assembled by master Narvaez Garcia. It combines Tuscan columns in the lower registry and wreathed columns in the upper. The courtyard colonnade, the elliptical dome and main floor lounge are signs of the noble ownership of the house.

In the grand facade stands a cover of red and white marble, with two bodies: the lower four paired Tuscan columns and top with a balcony framed by columns and curved pediment with the family crest- these embellishments typical of the style. In the top two pilasters topped with watchtowers are set. The inside is also noteworthy, with a main hall of irregular shape with the family crest painted on the roof and yard, pointed arches on Tuscan columns, a dome and an elliptical staircase.

In 2008 work began to convert the building into a luxury boutique hotel, and you can see evidence that work is ongoing still in the picture at left. The inside, apparently, has lots of interesting features, but since we were not able to go in and have a look at them, describing them is immaterial.

Near the Admiral's House I found a couple of interesting alleyways and courtyards; click on the thumbnails below to have a look at them:

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A short distance away from Casa del Almirante I happened to pass by an opening where something inside caught my eye. I stuck my head into what seemed to be a newly-renovated older building and found a very, very pretty courtyard with a large cross covered in red bougainvilla- which is what caught my eye. When I stepped inside I disovered that it was actually a four-story atrium in what was apparently a residential building.

I thought it nice enough to make a movie of, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

A bit further on down the narrow street, we came by what appeared to be a medieval area that had been excavated here in the Populo district. It was closed, but I took a few pictures through the gate; click on the thumbnails below to have a look at them:

For our next few stops, it might be a good idea to show you the current bit of our route.

You can see what I meant about our bypassing the Roman Theatre. We were on a narrow street going around to the north of it, coming out into the Plaza Frey Felix; the theatre was blocked from our view. What we did find was the plaza and the Old Cathedral, which we went in. The Museo Catedralicio was off to the east of the old Cathedral. We saw the sign for it but decided not to go in.

Stop 8: Museo Catedralicio

We bypassed the museum, although we could have returned with the ticket we bought for the Cathedral (new), since it admits you to the museum as well. But we didn't want to spend our short time in Cadiz wandering through a museum, even though it does have an excavated medieval street and material on the Anglo-Dutch sacking of 1596 alongside cathedral treasures and assorted art. (And I'd always wanted to learn more about the sacking of 1596.)

Stop 6: Roman Theatre

As I said, we inadvertently bypassed the Roman Theatre (not to worry- even though this was large structure, we'd see much, much larger ones in Cartagena, Rome, Olympia and Athens), but so you don't feel cheated, let me describe it briefly.

The Roman theatre of Cádiz, discovered in 1980, has been only partially excavated. The theatre, which was likely built during the 1st century BC and was one of the largest ever built in the Roman empire, was abandoned in the 4th century AD, and in the 13th century a fortress was built on its ruins by order of King Alfonso X of Castile.

The theatre featured a cavea with a diameter of more than 120 meters, and could house some 20,000 spectators. The theatre was one of the few Roman structures of ancient Hispania mentioned by classical authors, including Cicero and Strabo. Excavations in the site have also found remains of a quarter dating to the taifa period, Almohad houses and 17th century pits.

Now let's move on to the Plaza.

Stop 8a: Plaza de Fray Felix

We came out of one of the narrow streets we'd been walking through to find us in front of the old cathedral- in the Plaza Fray Felix.

The Plaza, which is in front of the old cathedral, is an irregular space on two levels. On the upper level are the Old Cathedral itself and, off to the left, the Museo Catedralicio. Then there is a stairway down to the lower level where we are standing. The staircase and railing were made in the second half of the 17th century by Felipe Gálvez. There are Tuscan pillars, on which is a parapet decorated with plants, and next to the staircase stands a small shrine-topped cylindrical building dedicated to Santa Cruz.

Click on the thumbnails below to see some of the other pictures we took here in the Plaza, including the outside decoration on the cathedral building:

Next, we went into the old cathedral.

Stop 7: Old Cathedral

We did go inside the old cathedral, one of many, many churches we would visit on our trip.

The Old Cathedral of Cadiz dates from 1262; it was burned by the Anglo-Dutch commanded by Admiral Charles Howard and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex , who attacked, invaded and plundered Cadiz in 1596. All that was saved from that event were the entrance arch and the vault of the baptistery. It was rebuilt in 1603, and then later modified in the eighteenth century in the Baroque and Mannerist style.

This cathedral was built by King Alfonso X of Castile, the Wise , in time of Pope Urban IV , but has had intermittent periods of worship. It was considered cathedral until 1838, when the cathedral of the city moved to the New Cathedral. Since that time, it is considered only a church. The new cathedral is west of the old, separated by the Old Bishop's Palace (Casa del Obispo) and Bishop Hall.

According to excavations in the basement of the Old Bishop's Palace, the historical chronology of the area can be traced back to the Visigoths and the Early Christian era. It is known that King Alfonso X built the church on the remains of a mosque; he was supposed to have been buried there, but was instead buried in Seville.

Stop 5: Casa del Obispo

Casa del Obispo was the former bishop's palace and it is now an archaeological site where you can learn about the city`s long history. You can see the bases of walls dating back to about 1000 BC when Cadiz was founded by the Phoenicians. There are also small Roman murals, foundations of a temple and the remains of the palace`s stables, all built on this site. It was closed today, so we did not go in.

Seaside (Between Old and New Cathedral) (Not on Map)

Again for the next small part of our walk, it might be helpful to see an aerial view. From the old cathedral, we came around its west side in the direction of the ocean, and then walked west to come around behind the new cathedral.

Click on the two thumbnails at below for views of the museum and excavation buildings at the site of the Casa del Obispo (Bishop's House) as seen from the avenue along the sea:

The views east and west along the ocean were very pretty; click on the thumbnails below to see them:

We walked northwest along Calle Campo de Sur (loose translation: "South Street") to come behind the new cathedral.

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Even though we were at the back side of the Cathedral, it was still impressive, and I made a movie of it from this vantage point. You can watch that movie with the player at right.

Meanwhile, Fred took a couple of pictures of one of the church's facades and of the tower we would eventually climb. You can see those two views here and here.

Then we walked around into Plaza Santiago in front of the cathedral.

Iglesia de Santiago and Cathedral Square (Not on Map)

Cathedral Square and Iglesia de Santiago

In the 19th century Cathedral Square was considered to be 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. (Iglesia de Santiago), originally built in 1669, is also situated in the plaza. In an area of the plaza to the left of the entrance to the Cathedral and in front of the Cadiz town hall is the statue of a Dominican Friar, a memorial to the order.

In 1954 the city's mayor proclaimed the location a historic site. All construction is prohibited.

Stop 4: The Catedral de Santa Cruz de Cádiz (New Cathedral)

As we learned in Lisbon, a town or city will have only one "cathedral." Here in the United States, we tend to use the term generically, as in "We have three Catholic cathedrals in town" or, just as generically, to refer to any large, imposing church. But used correctly, the term refers to whichever church in a town or city is the church of the highest-ranking prelate. (This is usually a Bishop or Archbishop. It is common for Catholic churches in towns without either to eschew the term "cathedral.") Now we are going to visit Cadiz's cathedral.

The Cathedral of Cadiz

Cádiz Cathedral (in Spanish: Catedral de Cádiz or Catedral de Santa Cruz de Cádiz) was built between 1722 and 1838. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1931. It is situated between Cathedral Square and the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Across the plaza to the northwest is the Baroque Santiago church, built in 1635.

The church 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.

In the crypt are buried the composer Manuel de Falla and the poet and playwright José María Pemán, both born in Cádiz.

Poniente (or West) Tower, one of the towers of Cádiz Cathedral, is open to the public and offers panoramas of the city from on high.

A visit to the Cathedral requires a ticket, unless one is there only for a Mass. We want to wander around, so we bought one. During our visit, we will see the chapel and the crypts. A bit later, we will climb the West Tower.

Inside the Cathedral

The church is in the shape of Latin cross and three aisles, leaving the space delimited by sets of columns. The high altar is a shrine dedicated to neoclassical Immaculate Conception.

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I made a movie shortly after we came into the Cathedral, and you can watch it with the player at left.

Around the perimeter of the nave there are shrines dedicated to those who built the cathedral, or the patrons of the city, among others. One of these chapels houses the monumental Custody silver, designed by Enrique de Arfe, which contains the Host on the feast of Corpus Christi. There are two marble figures of St. Peter and St. Paul that are near the entrance to the cathedral. Over the main door are statues of the paths.

We took a number of interesting pictures here in the Cathedral, and if you will click on the thumbnails below, you can have a look at some of them:

A Visit to the Crypts

When we got our entry ticket for the Cathedral, we added on a visit to the crypts below the main floor of the chapel. We thought it would be interesting, and it certainly was.

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We had to wait for a minute up on the main floor for the guide to return, check our tickets, and then allow us access to the crypt. I got my camera ready, and as we were going down into the crypts I made a movie of our descent and of the crypts themselves. Have a look at that movie with the player at left.

The crypts were immensely interesting; it was like being in an underground graveyard- except that there weren't any headstones, and almost no one was buried in the floor beneath your feet. But other than that, there was amazing variety. Some people were, apparently, buried in the walls, and for some of them there would be a picture (presumably of the deceased) mounted on the wall and lit by a candleabra light. You can see a good example here.

Other, more august personages, might have their own room or alcove, while others were, apparently, put into niches where entire families might reside. And some weren't buried at all.

You can see examples of all these situations in some of the pictures we took here; click on the thumbnails below to have a look at the crypts of the Cadiz Cathedral:

We didn't have a whole lot of time here in the crypts. They were closing in preparation for the Mass that would begin shortly. So after a fifteen-minute look around, we headed back up the stairs to the chapel and left the Cathedral.

Climbing the West Tower

When we got outside the Cathedral, Fred and I wanted to climb the West Tower, but Greg thought it might be a bit claustrophobic. So we left him sitting in the shade on the Cathedral steps while we went on our first tower-climbing adventure on the cruise.

The West Tower of Cadiz Cathedral

The traditional cathedral design from the Renaissance has usually two towers, and the Cadiz Cathedral is of that design. The Poniente (or West) Tower here is open to the public and is supposed to offer great views. So we went to the right outside the Cathedral and into a doorway at the base of the tower. There, we bought an admission to climb up and then headed off to the top. The first part of the climb was up a circular ramp; I made a movie as we started out from the little ticket office, and you can watch it with the player below:

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At first, I thought the climb up might be monotonous, with just the circular ramp, but as you saw in the movie, there were, occasionally, little windows that let in light. At one of these windows, people left money, and I can only assume it was for something like a wishing well (I don't know if the Christ statue was there originally, or left as a non-monetary gift). At one point, there was a large window in a little area off the ramp, and there was even a bench where you could sit and either look out the window or just rest. You can see Fred sitting on the bench here.

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About two-thirds of the way up, we encountered a sign that directed us off the ramp, so we followed it to see where it would go. A narrow passageway led to a whole series of rooms inside the tower. Have a look by watching my movie at left.

There were, of course, views out the window on the way up, like this view of Iglesia de Santiago and this one of Cathedral Square, but since we knew we would be seeing better views from the top, I haven't included any others of them here. The rest of the pictures we took inside were simply of us coming up the ramp. You can see some of these if you click on the thumbnails below:

It took us about twenty minutes to make the climb, what with all the stops we made. But eventually we came out at the top of the tower- in the open enclosure that housed the church bells. There were, if I remember correctly, six bells arrayed around the tower, and each old bell was very detailed, as you can see here.

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When we came up the last stretch of the circular ramp, there were stairs at the end. We climbed those, and came out into the bell tower. I was bowled over by the tower and the views, so first I made a movie. You can watch it with the player at right.

We immediately took some pictures of ourselves here in the bell tower, and you can see the best of these if you click on the thumbnails below:

Now we wanted to see the views of Cadiz that we had climbed all this way for, so both of us moved to the outside of the tower to look through the open-air archways at Cadiz and the ocean stretched out below us.

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I think that the first thing you should do is have a look at the excellent movie that Fred made. While I might wish that he had done more narration (to tell you which direction you were looking) it is certainly an excellent way for you to see what it was like up here in the West Tower. Use the player at left to watch his movie.

Click on the thumbnails below to see a few of the pictures Fred took from the tower:

The views from here were so good that I felt that I wanted to capture every view in every direction. I would like to have taken one panoramic movie, and indeed I tried, but all the outside columns of the tower kept getting in the way- as they did in Fred's movie.

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Then I thought I could make a movie in each of the different directions. In each of the four directions, there was a display below the window (like the one you can see in this picture of Fred at the west‑facing opening), and I thought I could make a movie panning across that direction and then panning across the display. In fact, I tried that at this same window, and you can watch the movie with the player at right.

The pan of the view in the movie was OK, but the pan across the display wasn't readable in the movie, so it didn't seem as if continuing that process would be useful for me or for you, the viewer.

After that, it seemed to me that the way to document the views from here was not to make a series of movies that you'd have to watch (particularly since the display boards didn't generate useful videos), but to instead make a panoramic image of the view in a particular direction. Then I could match that to a picture of the display board for that direction.

I tried out this approach to the East. I was able to stitch together a decent panorama of the view, but I found quickly that I couldn't get back far enough from the display board to get the whole thing in with enough detail that you could read it. It seemed as if the solution would be to stitch together a panorama of close-up pictures of the board as well. Below are two scrollable windows for my effort looking east. The first one is the panoramic view, and the second is the stitched image of the display board:

A Panoramic View to the East

Display Board for the East View

I did another compass direction the same way:

A Panoramic View to the East

Display Board for the South View

I thought I was on a roll, but then when I thought more about the display boards, I reconsidered. It seemed to me that no one was likely to want to read the display boards in detail; after all, I had actually been there, and they were overkill even for me. So for the other two directions, I didn't fool around with the display boards, but I did do panoramas of the views. Here they are:

A Panoramic View to the West

A Panoramic View to the North

I hope after all that work that you at least enjoy looking at the views from here at the top of the West Tower of the Cathedral of Cadiz. I am going to include a few other individual pictures that we took from our vantage point; each is interesting and shows a different facet of old Cadiz. Click on the thumbnails below to view:

We thought we'd kept Greg waiting long enough, so we reluctantly ended our visit to the tower.

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We headed over to the stairs down to begin our descent.

I made a movie as we began our descent, and you can watch it with the player at left.

We were back down and joined up with Greg about ten minutes later, and we headed off to continue our walk on the green line.

Stop 3: Arco de la Rosa

The Arch de la Rosa is the ancient western gate of medieval Cadiz, now located in the remnant of the city wall next to the Cathedral of Cadiz, just off Cathedral Square.

The wall was built in the thirteenth century in the reign of Alfonso X the Wise. There are two theories as to where the name came from. One says that is named in honor of a Marian image of the same name who had a chapel nearby; the other says that it was named either by or for Captain Gaspar de la Rosa, who lived in the city in the eighteenth century. At times it is also referred to as the Arch de Santiago, from the suburb of the same name. It was last restored in 1973.

You can see Greg standing under the Arch here. Going through through the Arch, we could look back to Cathedral Square, and turning forward we continued to follow the green line, heading down the narrow street towards the beginning of the green line in Plaza de San Juan de Dios.

Stop 2: Arco del Populo

The area between the Cathedral and Plaza de San Juan de Dios is called Barrio del Populo, the kernel of medieval Cadiz and a focus of the city's recent renovation program.

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Leaving Cathedral Square, we made a number of twists and turns as we navigated the narrow streets- always following the green line. At one point, we passed a street cafe just setting up for lunch. Then, we came through a narrow passageway into the middle of Barrio del Populo.

Barrio del Populo is now a center for craft shops and galleries, and is busy almost all the time with tourists, residents and, quite often, street performers. Here, getting towards noon on a Sunday, the streets were very active, and you can see what I mean if you watch my movie. Just use the player at left.

We continued onward towards the end of our first walk, and eventually came through an archway into the Plaza de San Juan de Dios.

The old arch that leads from the Barrio del Populo into Plaza de San Juan is called the "Arco del Populo." Originally, it was called the "Sea Gate," for the waters of the bay came much closer to the plaza and to it than they do now.

We now found ourselves back at the large plaza that we had passed this morning.

Stop 1: Plaza San Juan de Dios

Our Medieval and City Walls walking tour came to an end here in Plaza San Juan de Dios (although it should have begun here, no worries).

Plaza San Juan di Dios

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 (Spanish: Gótico Isabelino or, simply, the Isabelino) style.

Here, in 1936, the flag of Andalusia was hoisted for the first time.

At the foot of the plaza nearest the harbor can be found the offices of Diario de Cadiz, one of Spain's oldest newspapers. The Diario, published in Spanish and online, put out its first edition in 1867.

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I made a movie here in the plaza, looking all around, and although my narrative wasn't precise enough to identify City Hall, it will give you a good idea of what the plaza was like.

The Walk Ends

This brought our first walk through Cadiz to an end.

Return to the List of Walks in Cadiz