The Top 10 Things to See and Do in Cádiz, Spain

Cádiz’s key architectural attraction is its spectatcular Santa Cruz cathedral. It was built between 1722 and 1838 and was originally known as the Church of the Americas because it was financed by Spain’s lucrative trading with the ‘New World’. One of its two towers is open to the public and offers some great views of the Cádiz skyline, whilst the façade can be admired from sunny terraces on Plaza de la Catedral.

Well worth a trip if you’re exploring the port area of Cádiz is the Benot Gallery, which displays works by contemporary Andalusian artists. The current exhibition, by Cádiz-born painter Ricardo Urrejola, is a good example of the kind of art exhibited at Benot: entitled ‘On Nature, the Sea and the City’, it explores our natural and man-made habitats over a series of arresting oil paintings.

10 Avenida Ramón de Carranza, Cádiz, Spain, +34 956228681

The façade of Santa Cruz cathedral in Cádiz | © Roger Ward / Flickr

The Santa Catalina castle was built on the orders of Philip II in 1596 after the seizure and sacking of Cádiz that same year by an Anglo-Dutch fleet. From the ramparts you can look out over the bobbing fishing boats of Caleta Bay and fishermen scraping sea urchins from the rocks in low tide. Some of the interior spaces now serve as exhibition halls, where you can enjoy works by local artists (no admission fee charged).

Calle Campo de las Balas, s/n, Cádiz, Spain, +34 956226333

Founded in 1970, when the city’s Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeological Museum combined, the Cádiz Museum displays an intriguing mix of artefacts over three floors. On the ground floor is an archaeological collection that features some notable pieces from prehistoric Andalusia; on the first floor you can enjoy paintings by Rubens and the 17th-century Sevillano artist Bartolomé Murillo; and on the second level are displayed some of the ‘Tia Norica’ puppets used in Cádiz‘s famous carnival.

La Perla is the city’s best flamenco club and usually puts on two or three shows a week. On a big stage decorated in rural gypsy style (think wooden cartwheels, Andalusian ceramics and copper pans) an extroverted brand of flamenco performed, with as many as five or six dancers pounding the stage into submission at once. Admission is free and there is cheap bar inside that serves sandwiches and plates of cured jamon as well as drinks.

Calle Concepción Arenal, s/n, Cádiz, Spain, +34 956259101

For a lively morning in Cádiz, check out the city’s biggest and best market on Plaza Libertad. The Mercado Central is a joyful, chaotic nucleus of local life, with old men piling into the nearby bars for a mid-morning sherry or caña (small beer) whilst their wives haggle for bargains. Seafood stalls selling that morning’s catches line the central aisles, whilst butchers, fruit and vegetable and clothing outlets are found on the square’s outskirts.

Plaza Libertad, s/n, Cádiz, Spain

Enjoy exuberant flamenco in Cádiz | © Tom / Flickr

The old fishing quarter of La Viña (well worth exploring in its own right) is home to Casa Manteca, one of Cádiz’s legendary tapas bars. Its small interior is decorated with sepia-hued bullfighting posters, old sherry barrels and dusty bottles of wine – a suitably traditional environment in which to enjoy excellent wines and tapas (the cured meats are particularly good). Manteca is hugely popular with tourists, but happily it has never lost its old-school charm.

66 Calle Corralón de los Carros, Cádiz, Spain, +34 956213603

Playa Caltea, Cádiz | © James Blick / Flickr