Cádiz, Spain — RachiePie

¡Hola! We decided to take a short road trip to Spain as it is not far from where we are staying in Tavira. We drove about 2 1/2 hours to Cádiz on Sunday and spent the day touring around the city. Cádiz was founded in 1100 BC (yes, you read that correctly!) by the Phoenicians and is the oldest inhabited city in Spain and one of the oldest cities in all western Europe. Cádiz is small and easy to walk around; however, it is densely populated with 126,000 people living here.

We started our day at the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva (Oratory of the Holy Cave). This is a very unique church built in 1780 where you go both upstairs and downstairs to see the chapels. The lower chamber was less ornate and did not have much light compared to the upper chamber.

We then walked over to Oratorio de San Felipe Neri. It was at this church where the first liberal constitution was declared in 1812. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside the church, but it was very ornate and beautiful. I was able to snap a picture from the outside.

Next we headed to the Torre Tavira, the official watchtower in Cádiz, built in 1778. Once we climbed the stairs to the top of the tower we were rewarded with gorgeous views of the city. Cádiz is surrounded by ocean which causes the white buildings to look even brighter in the sun. We noticed there were multiple rooftops where we could see laundry being hung out to dry.

One of my favorite places we visited was the Catedral de Cádiz. This yellow-domed church was commissioned in 1716 but not finished until 1838. We could also climb to the top of the bell tower to see more beautiful views of the city.

We spent the rest of our afternoon walking around the Castillo de San Sebastián (a fort built in 1706), the Castillo de Santa Catalina (another fort built in 1596), Gran Teatro Falla (concert hall) and lastly Parque Genovés (public park).

Cádiz is a beautiful city with amazing history, narrow cobblestoned streets, and stunning architecture.