Cádiz

23/11/2024

Cádiz is a city that I visited during my stay in Seville together with my historic travel partner in October 2019. As I explained in the post about Seville, I also used that place as a base to visit other places in Andalusia of which Cádiz was the first of this series. Strangely enough, I got to know this city thanks to an American teenager that I followed on Instagram many years ago, a girl with genuine beauty with whom I exchanged a few messages from time to time. During the period in which we followed each other, she had been on holiday in Cádiz, posting beautiful photos with an enthusiasm that only one can have at that age. I remember that at the time I asked her for information on the places she would visit and she always answered in a friendly way. Getting to know Cádiz through the eyes of an American girl made me appreciate the city in a different way, highlighting aspects that for me, as a European, were obvious. In other words, I started to be curious about Cádiz as if I were a person who had never seen a similar city with large churches made of stone or narrow streets paved with cobblestones. From what I understood, the architecture of Cádiz was similar to several places I have always seen in Italy especially in the regions of Puglia and Sicily, however I wanted to see in person a Spanish city shown to me with the enthusiasm and simplicity of an American teenager.

Obviously before leaving I did a little research on the places to see and I drew up an itinerary in order to optimize the time. Cádiz was about an hour and a half by train from Seville and I had seen that the train also passed through the Jerez de la Frontera station. I planned the day in such a way as to visit Cádiz and then on the way back stop for a few hours in Jerez. The program was a bit demanding but by fitting things together well it could be done perfectly giving us great satisfaction. Together with my partner we left from the Santa Justa station at 09:00 arriving in Cádiz at about 10:30. Without a doubt the most beautiful thing about the train journey was the final part when we passed over a narrow strip of land in the middle of the sea where there were only the tracks and the road. Cádiz developed at the end of this strip of land but travelling along that stretch of railway, I had the impression of going towards nowhere because we were literally in the middle of the sea.
The historic center of Cádiz was only two blocks from the station and immediately after our arrival, we reached it in a few minutes. The first impact with the city was with Plaza de San Juan de Dios, a square that gave me the impression of having been recently renovated. This is because it was paved all over giving an unattractive cement effect, however it had many palm trees that in a certain sense broke up the overly urban appearance in favor of a more exotic cut. To help this effect there were also the tables covered by awnings of the restaurants on the sides of the square, a type of furniture that together with the paving and the palm trees gave the idea of an urban oasis. The backdrop of the square was the beautiful Ayuntamiento palace: a very large building with a “mixed” architecture. In fact, the palace as a style tended towards the so-called neoclassical because above the base formed by arches, a colonnade then rose in the central part that then became in relief on the sides of the building. In the central part the colonnade was covered by the frame behind which a tower stood out. It had a clock and at the top a small dome that if I'm not mistaken had a bell inside. At the time the design had struck me, however I didn't see it as something new or unprecedented. Only later did I realize that the building of the Ayntamiento of Cádiz was very similar to the "Église catholique Saint-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg", a building that caught my attention in Brussels because for a church it had new elements and a design more like an imperial palace. Later comparing them I noticed that the buildings actually look like two twin palaces, you have to understand according to what logic, how it was possible that the designers of the two buildings could have influenced each other and how they managed to complete two almost identical structures, very complex to build and thousands of kilometers apart from each other. Clearly these are reflections that I make only after having discovered the similarity of the buildings but that day in Cádiz I limited myself to observing and photographing and then continued on my way to discover the city.
The Cathedral of Cádiz was a few blocks from the Ayuntamiento and overlooked a rectangular plaza. Although it was very wide, in my opinion it was not deep enough to appreciate the cathedral at its best. Let's say that the building gave off an looming effect where I was unable to appreciate its details in particular. It was symmetrical with two bell towers on the sides and the central part hollowed out towards the inside. Built in stone, it stood at the top of a short staircase and was light brown at the base and lighter, almost white, at the top. The combination of colors was noticeable and pleasant to the eye; they were the colors of cappuccino so I connected that view to something good that I associate with waking up. Undoubtedly from my point of view, those colors gave me a strong positivity as well as being exotic. If from a real point of view the cathedral seemed to fall on us, from a photographic point of view with the ultra wide angle lens that I used to shoot, the building was even more bizarre. I managed to take some photos capturing it all in the frame, but the distortion was one of the strangest I have ever seen. The building, as beautiful as it is, needed a much deeper frontal space to appreciate that articulated majesty. In the part in front of the cathedral there were numerous restaurants with outdoor tables, together with my partner we decided to stop for breakfast there so that we could continue to appreciate the view of that beautiful monument even if with the looming effect.
Cádiz was a network of narrow streets, streets that in some places reminded me of Venice but without the canals. Just as I had done for Venice, to guide myself I had marked the straightest and most important ones that through squares would take me to the sea side. The first reference square we reached was Plaza de la Candelaria, very small but full of trees and with a statue of a person in the center that I don't know who it depicted. From the square we headed to Calle Ancha which was the street of shops, a very long and perfectly straight artery that cut through the entire historic center. This street was neither small nor large and on one side at regular intervals there were benches with an iron structure and wooden seats. I remember that I realized that that street was the perfect width because thanks to this it was not dispersive and gave the possibility of being able to look at the shops on both sides. Calle Ancha ended on Plaza de San Antonio where there was the homonymous "Parroquia de San Antonio". This was a very large square with a few cafes and tourists stopping mainly to admire the church. The Parroquia de San Antonio had an odd design in that the structure had two towers, extending to the right side of the towers with a row of rose windows. However the entrance was richly decorated with stone work of reliefs where there were elements such as columns, spirals and cornices. I do not know the history of the parish but it seemed to me that the design of the entrance was from a different historical period than the rest of the structure. Probably the original church had been destroyed and then rebuilt around the central door.

Plaza de San Juan de Dios

Cádiz Town Hall

Cathedral

Plaza de la Candelaria

Calle Ancha

Buildings in Calle Ancha

Parroquia de San Antonio

We reached the seaside by walking along one of the narrow streets that started from Plaza de San Antonio. We arrived in the Jardines Clara, through which we were able to enjoy the view of the sea for the first time, a breathtaking panorama. From there, the long sidewalk started, which practically ran all around the outer part of the city, returning near the station. The “paseo” along the sea was beautiful both for the view and for its design. In fact, the entire sidewalk was built with stone parapets with round motifs and above all with beautiful, richly decorated Art Nouveau street lamps. It may seem banal, but I remember that I had several photos taken with those street lamps, which, with the background of the sea below, gave a very characteristic and unique imprint to the photo. Works like these street lamps seem obvious because perhaps we see them in films set in other eras, however, the visual effect they produce in person is truly impactful. You immediately understand that it is something different and harmonious, something that is directly connected to our subsonic. I wasn't interested in having a nice photo with the sea in the background, I was interested in having a photo with one of those street lamps; as if they were an important work of art.
We left the paseo part once we arrived at Parque Genovés, a rectangular park with very particular trees. These trees were extremely well-kept and cut with round patterns, being alternated with very tall palm trees, gave a very scenic effect. The park was quite large but we only visited the part that faced the road, after which we continued the walk until we reached the beautiful “Playa de la Caleta”. This natural basin was much larger than I thought and I was pleasantly surprised. The cove had very fine, bright yellow sand and was not only wide but also deep. A beach with Caribbean tones where here and there it was occupied by people sunbathing despite it being mid-October. In the center of the cove there was the structure “Balneario Nuestra señora de la Palma y del Real”, a white semicircular bathing structure that was very beautiful on the outside and which if I'm not mistaken was closed during the period when we visited. Passing behind the structure and admiring the cove at the same time I had the feeling of seeing something familiar, however during my visit to Cádiz and even a long time after, I could not understand why I had that feeling. Only after seeing the 007 film “Die Another Day” starring Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry did I realize that there were scenes filmed in Cádiz and especially the famous one in which Halle Berry came out of the water quoting the scene that instead saw Ursula Andress as the protagonist in the first film of the 007 series “Dr. No”. At the time I had not yet seen the film but I remembered perfectly the scenes seen dozens of times in the trailer, for this reason the place seemed familiar to me.
At the end of Playa de la Caleta there was a characteristic white arch, it was called Puerta de la Caleta and crossing it the Paseo Fernando Quińones began. This was a road paved with pebbles and had basic parapets also in stone. It was like a walkway over the water, very long and in the shape of a serpentine that reached the walls of the Castillo de San Sebastian. The route was very suggestive because the alternation of high and low seas throughout the year brought to view particular rock formations. There were parts of real rock, parts of beach, areas full of algae and then towards the end a strange conformation, like a sort of solidified sand where there were very large holes. We had fun taking photos along the entire paseo because of the beautiful perspectives but in the final part where there was the mixed conformation, there was the maximum fun. Together with my partner we went down to this part right next to the sea and I personally had some photos taken while I was inside one of the many holes. I was surprised to see that they were very deep and after I went down into one of them, only my head remained sticking out. The time spent there was probably the most fun of the day in Cádiz but leaving that place we walked through the last part of the city that I had planned to see.

The beautiful design of the street lamps

Parque Genovés

Playa de la Caleta

La Caleta

Balneario Nuestra señora de la Palma y del Real

Puerta de la Caleta

Paseo Fernando Quińones

Castillo de San Sebastian on my back

Immediately after the end of the Cala, Avenida Campo del Sur began, where right overhanging the sea, there was a sidewalk that had more or less the style of the paseo that started from Jardines Clara. The path was very suggestive because it was very high above the sea but at the same time it had no particular protection and at the bottom it was full of giant rocks. From Campo del Sur there was also the best view of Cádiz, where I could see the whole city with the back of the cathedral and on the far right the Torre Tavira II. We walked along the road behind the cathedral and arrived at the “Mirador playa de las Mujeres” and under the controversial Torre Tavjra II also known as El Pirulí. My goal was to see the tower up close but I discovered that in reality the best view of it was from the Mirador playa de las Mujeres. From there I was able to take some nice photos with the tower in the background but as we got under it, the base composed of a large rectangular building, completely covered the upper part of the structure. However, from there, looking out towards the Playa de Santa Maria Del Mar, I was able to see a pleasant scene in addition to the sea view. There were some surfers who were changing after finishing their activity and one of them, a very sexy girl, was taking a shower topless and in a thong. Of course I took some photos of it but I had a wide angle and it was in that situation that probably made me come up with the idea of buying the 18-135, a lens that in that case would have allowed me to take two different types of panoramas at the same time.
Our exploration of Cádiz ended soon after, when we returned to the Ayntamiento square through the “Plaza de la Consitución” where there was the “Puerta de Tierra”, a very large wall that had several arched openings and preserved a modest but not particularly imposing tower in the center. We had lunch under the Ayuntamiento with a paella that was both a boost of energy and a reward for an exploration that had been perfectly successful. That was the first visit of the day, on the way back I had planned a quick visit to Jerez de la Frontera, a place that had always intrigued me and which I will talk about in the next post.

Cádiz was a visit born by chance that led me to imagine a place with certain nuances that were then amplified in person. If in the photos of the American girl there were only narrow streets and a few glimpses of the sea, in my visit I could see the complexity of those narrow streets very similar to those of Venice and above all the vastness of the sea and the beaches. In addition to this there were details such as the parks, the Liberty street lamps and the geological diversity of the part of the beach that could be seen from Paseo Fernando Quińones. Those small frames on Instagram that saw in the foreground an enchanting blonde teenager with curly hair with the background of an intriguing landscape, became a different reality; larger, more articulated and exotic. However, even though I searched with all my senses, I never managed to find the ghost of that girl who had inspired me; the virtual world had become reality and then returned to the dream dimension.