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Stories and traditions of Cádiz

Long-form pieces on the city's history, food, festivals and everyday life.

Close view of Cádiz fried fish batter-free in a thin flour crust, chopitos and acedías in a paper cone on a freiduría counter, warm side light

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Does Cádiz Fried Fish Batter Use Chickpea Flour? It Depends

Andrés Villanueva Rondón

Cádiz fried fish is floured once, never battered. Wheat is the usual flour, chickpea is a cook's choice. How a freiduría fries it and what to order in Cádiz.

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Famous people from Cádiz: nine historical figures imagined against the old town roofline and the cathedral dome at sunset

Famous People From Cádiz and the Places They Left

Lucía Barbera Quintero Updated

Famous people from Cádiz, from consul Balbus to Falla and El Mellizo: nine names, each with the tomb, bust, plaque or museum that still marks them in the city.

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Cádiz liberal history: the Oratorio de San Felipe Neri and the old town's rooftops under a bright Atlantic sky, a Cortes-era street scene

Liberal Cádiz: From the 1812 Constitution to Salvochea's Canton

Lucía Barbera Quintero Updated

Liberal Cádiz history in five steps: the 1812 Cortes, Mendizábal's 1836 convent sale, the 1868 revolution and Salvochea's 1873 canton, and where to see it.

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Roman Gades: the Cádiz seafront at dusk with salting vats and the stone curve of a Roman theatre rising beside an ancient harbour, in warm evening light

How Roman Gades Rose on Balbus Money and Salted Fish

Lucía Barbera Quintero Updated

Roman Gades went from federate city to Roman municipium in 49 BC. Meet the Balbus family, the garum trade and Columella, the farming writer born there.

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Latest articles

Eighteenth-century cadiz watchtowers and Torre Tavira rising above whitewashed rooftops overlooking the Atlantic

Cádiz Watchtowers and Torre Tavira: Inside the Lookout Network

Lucía Barbera Quintero

Why do more than 100 Baroque watchtowers crown the rooftops of Cádiz? Explore Torre Tavira, the 1717 Indies trade monopoly, and where to see them today.

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Costumed chirigota and comparsa singers performing satirical coplas in the streets of Cádiz alongside the Gran Teatro Falla

History of Cádiz Carnival: Chirigotas, Comparsas & Censorship

Lucía Barbera Quintero

Explore the history of Cádiz Carnival, from 15th-century Genoese merchants and the 1937 ban to Paco Alba's comparsas and COAC versus street chirigotas.

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Historic rooftops, watchtowers and golden cathedral dome of Cádiz rising above the Atlantic Ocean

12 Interesting Facts About Cádiz: History, Towers & Secrets

Lucía Barbera Quintero

Discover 12 interesting facts about Cádiz, from Phoenician houses buried under a puppet theatre and two marble sarcophagi to 134 watchtowers and La Pepa.

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Playa de La Caleta, the 1926 Balneario de la Palma, and coastal castles at the james bond cadiz filming locations

Movies Filmed in Cádiz: How La Caleta Became James Bond's Havana

Lucía Barbera Quintero

See where James Bond's Die Another Day, Sean Connery's Cuba, Viggo Mortensen's Alatriste, and Tom Cruise's Knight and Day were filmed across Cádiz, Spain.

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Atlantic waves striking the western sea walls and La Caleta during the 1755 tsunami cadiz on 1 November 1755

How the 1755 Tsunami Hit Cádiz and Stopped in La Viña

Lucía Barbera Quintero

On 1 November 1755, five tsunami waves struck Cádiz at 11:10 am. See how La Caleta's walls broke, Azlor locked Puerta de Tierra, and La Viña survived.

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Puerta de Tierra ramparts and Extramuros shoreline connected to the 1947 cadiz explosion

Why the 1947 Cádiz Explosion Spared the Walled Old Town

Lucía Barbera Quintero

At 9:45 pm on 18 August 1947, 200 tonnes of naval mines detonated in San Severiano, killing 152 people while Puerta de Tierra shielded Cádiz's Old Town.

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Combined Fleet warships off the fortified port during the battle of trafalgar cadiz campaign in October 1805

Why the Battle of Trafalgar Began and Ended in Cádiz

Lucía Barbera Quintero

In October 1805, 33 ships left Cádiz for the Battle of Trafalgar. Trace Admiral Gravina's warning, the 23 October counter-sortie, and the city's hospitals.

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Playa de La Caleta sheltered between stone fortresses during a levante wind cadiz afternoon

Why the Levante Wind in Cádiz Rules Every Beach Day

Marta Jiménez Cossío

The Levante wind blows on 165 days a year in the Strait region. Learn why the 14 km Venturi funnel heats Cádiz city and which beaches stay well sheltered.

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Late-15th-century caravels and naos departing the Bay of Cádiz during the christopher columbus cadiz voyages

Why Christopher Columbus Sailed From Cádiz in 1493 and 1502

Lucía Barbera Quintero

Christopher Columbus sailed from Cádiz on his 17-ship Second Voyage in 1493 and his Fourth Voyage in 1502. Trace his fleets and medieval El Pópulo today.

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Elizabethan warships firing on Spanish galleons in the Bay of Cádiz during the francis drake cadiz raid 1587

Why Francis Drake's 1587 Cádiz Raid Preceded the 1596 Sack

Lucía Barbera Quintero

Francis Drake raided Cádiz Harbour in April 1587 to delay the Armada, and in June 1596 an English fleet under Essex returned to capture and burn the city.

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Phoenician Gadir Cadiz: the ancient island port and the Temple of Melqart on the Sancti Petri islet at sunset

How Phoenician Gadir Built Tyre's Atlantic Port in Cádiz

Lucía Barbera Quintero

Phoenician Gadir turned the Cádiz archipelago into Tyre's Atlantic port. Explore the Temple of Melqart, the 9th-century BC streets and the Dama de Cádiz.

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Siege of Cadiz 1810: Spanish and British cannon on the bay bastions firing across the water during the Peninsular War blockade

Why the Siege of Cádiz Held Off Napoleon for Thirty Months

Lucía Barbera Quintero

During the Siege of Cádiz from 1810 to 1812, islands, batteries and 17,000 Allied troops defied Napoleon while the Cortes wrote Spain's first Constitution.

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