Cádiz

Cádiz is often regarded as the oldest city still standing in Western Europe. Phoenicians from Tyre founded it as Gadir, meaning "wall" or "stronghold", traditionally around 1100 BC, although nothing excavated on the site is older than the 9th century BC. The ancient town occupied two small islands near the mouth of the Guadalete, traded with Tartessos, and was known for its temple of Melqart, whom Greeks and Romans called Hercules. After the fall of Tyre in 573 BC Carthage took over, and later Rome, under which Gades built one of the largest theatres in the empire.

The city was incorporated into Castile in 1264, and its links with Genoa prepared it for the age of discovery: Columbus sailed from Cádiz on his second voyage in 1493 and his fourth in 1502. Wealth brought enemies. Barbary corsairs raided, fire destroyed much of the old town in 1569, Francis Drake occupied the harbour in 1587, and an Anglo-Dutch fleet captured the city in 1596. In 1717 the Casa de Contratación, the agency that ran the trade with the Americas, moved here from Seville, and the 18th century became a golden age: merchants built more than 160 watchtowers to watch for ships, and the new cathedral was begun.

During the Peninsular War, Cádiz was the seat of Spain's high command and of the Cortes, and on 19 March 1812 the liberal Constitution of 1812, "La Pepa", was proclaimed on the present Plaza San Antonio. In 1820 the city revolted to restore it. The Carranza bridge linked Cádiz with the mainland in 1969, and La Pepa bridge followed in 2015, while the city's population has fallen in recent decades.

The Carnival of Cádiz is the city's great expression of itself. Its hallmark is humour: sarcasm, wordplay and parody aimed at the most pressing problems of the day. Its stars are the chirigotas, groups of seven to twelve performers who sing comic songs to guitars, kazoos and a bass drum, alongside choirs, close-harmony comparsas and cuartetos. Groups rehearse and compete throughout the year, the official contest is held each February in the Gran Teatro Falla, and on carnival Saturday almost everyone wears a costume, often mocking the news.

The city remembers 1812 everywhere: the monument on Plaza de España, the bridge nicknamed La Pepa and the many squares, gardens and churches tied to the constitution. Its musical heritage runs through Manuel de Falla, born in Cádiz and buried in the cathedral crypt beside the poet José María Pemán, also a native, and the theatre that bears Falla's name.

La Caleta, wedged between two castles, has always featured in carnival songs, and its seafront is often compared to the Malecón of Havana. People of Cádiz are called gaditanos, from the Latin Gaditanus.

About 110,000 people lived in the city in 2025, making it the most populous town on the Bay of Cádiz and the third in the province after Jerez de la Frontera and Algeciras. It is the only municipality on the bay whose population has been falling. The spit leaves almost no room to grow: nearly everyone lives on about 4.4 square kilometres at a density close to 30,000 people per square kilometre, and the sandy ground makes high-rise building costly, so the skyline is not much different from that of the Middle Ages.

The economy rests on commerce linked to the shipyards, the port and the free-trade zone, and on tourism drawn by the beaches, the fiestas and the old town. Fishing has been in serious crisis for decades, and the shipyards are underused. Cádiz has had the highest unemployment rate of any Spanish provincial capital, and its population is one of the oldest in Spain, with more people over 65 than under 20 in the recent count.

Life is lived close to the sea, on La Caleta and Playa de la Victoria in summer and along the walls all year, and the carnival groups keep rehearsing through the year. The University of Cádiz has one of its campuses in the city.

Cádiz cooks from the sea. Pescaíto frito, an assortment of fish coated in flour and fried in plenty of olive oil, is eaten all year, along with bienmesabe, dogfish in an adobo marinade, grilled mackerel and boiled, griddled or fried shellfish. Tortillitas de camarones are fritters of wheat and chickpea flour, water, onion, parsley and tiny whole shrimp; the dish comes from Cádiz or neighbouring San Fernando and may owe its invention to the old Genoese colony.

Stews combine sea and land: atún encebollao, tuna with onions; papas con chocos, potatoes with cuttlefish; and fish balls. In summer people turn to fresher dishes such as papas aliñás, boiled potatoes dressed with seasonings. Like everywhere in Andalusia, tapas are central to eating out.

Traditional sweets include tocino de cielo, pestiños and pan de Cádiz. The covered Mercado Central on Plaza de la Libertad, just south of Torre Tavira, supplies the city's kitchens, and its fish stalls announce themselves from the street. Across the bay, the sherry towns of Jerez, El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar supply the wine.