CADIZ, SPAIN – 24 October 2026
I hadn’t heard of Cadiz before this trip. Viking said “Cadiz/Seville”, so I knew it was in Spain, and near Seville, but that was about it. Should we hire a car/guide to go further afield? Christine is not a fan of Spain, so she thought she’d stay on board. I sucked it in and decided to do the “Cadiz walking tour”. Turns out there was much more to see than I had time for.
The Viking Daily came out the night before …
This is the image Viking gave for Cadiz with the write up “Cadiz lies on Spain’s breathtaking province of Andalusia and gained incredible wealth during the 18th century; riches from the Americas were unloaded here after the Guadalquivir River to Seville silted up. This scenic southern region is home of the matador and world-class equestrian art. Seville, city of polyamorous suited Don Juan, boasts plenty of its own glories. Its grand cathedral, Alcazar Palace and Tower of Gold were built from the coffers of Spanish kings, but its fiery flamenco defines its true spirit. It is best to ponder it all while sipping sherry at a bodega.”
Doesn’t really give much of an idea what Cadiz has to offer does it? We met up with our guide, Mayka and started our “walking tour”.
Our first stop was this Monument to the Constitution of 1812 built in 1912. Mayka gave us a rundown of pretty much every piece of the monument and the story behind each part of the sculpture. Sounds boring, right? But it was actually fascinating.
We then meandered down a few streets heading towards the Old City. I took a few photos of the architecture of the buildings (which would have been family residences).
Nice buildings in some areas with wide streets and beautiful trees.
And nice parks.
Then the streets become narrower and we’re entering the old part of the city.
More quaint buildings.
I think this was part of a church.
Really ornate lighting is all around the city. Would have liked to see it at night.
This working church is the church that every woman wants to get married in said Mayka. Apparently, the inside is beautiful, and there’s a three-year waiting list to have your marriage there, Mayka says she’s already got her name on the waiting list (even though she doesn’t have a prospective husband yet – think she was joking).
With the narrow streets, some buildings have “protection” on the corner (to protect from cars etc). This one has an intricate metal piece (an indication of the wealth of the building), but some had old cannons that had been incorporated into the corners.
Mayka told us the story of the seige of Cadiz, apparently when the French retreated, they had to go through swamp land and the weight of the canons were too much for the soldiers so many canons were left behind, and the locals, once the soldiers were gone, retrieved the canons and used them as cornices for their buildings.
An up-close view of the metal plate showing the house was built in 1901.
Mayka said that this house still belongs to the family that built it.
Another aside she gave was that you could tell the wealth of the family by the railings, if they were rounded at the bottom this indicated wealth, apparently as the railings were built to accommodate the dresses worn by the women as they were flaired at the bottom.
Note the building foundations on these houses. More about that later.
We’re getting quite close to the old city now – see the Cathedral in the distance.
I thought this house gave new meaning to the rounded corners.
This apparently was built as a commercial centre.
The streets are getting narrower and narrower.
This is Oyster Stone and it’s the rock that was initially used for all the foundations and buildings in Cadiz. Sometimes it was quarried but initially it’s said that when the Old Wall which surrounded the old city was dismantled, they used much of the oyster stone in new buildings. Eventually though they decided that it was not good to use up all the oyster stone so it’s no longer used.
Another building built in the Baroque style using the oyster stone for much of the structure.
Our next stop was the Cathedral of the Holy Cross over the Waters (Catedral de Santa Cruz sobre las Aguas) .
The bottom 1/2 of the Cathedral was built in the Baroque style and construction started in 1722.
Mayka told us that after the first 1/2 construction stopped (can’t remember the reason she gave us) but when construction restarted, tastes had changed and baroque was no longer popular, so they built the second half in the neoclassical style (finishing in 1838). Much of the bottom half was constructed using marble but with the second half, the marble was too expensive and so they used limestone. Because the climate is humid, it was found that the limestone was a bit too soft to be safe, so there are sheets of wire that are spread from side to side to catch any bits of limestone that fall down. You can hardly notice it in the above photo, but it is quite obvious when looking up.
This is the first chapel that was built probably early in the building stage. It is in the baroque style (check out those amazing marble spirals on it), all other chapels are in the neoclassical style, much plainer. Even the flooring is extremely patterned, when all the other chapels (built much later) are just plain white marble.
This grid was built around the choir section – it’s extremely ornate and Mayka told us that a family would have donated this. I’m not sure what the reason would be to have the choir behind such a big fence and gate! The chairs used were mahogany and saved from the original cathedral that was demolished to build the new one. The second tier of chairs were donated from a monastery which was “exclaustrated” (interesting word for “closing it down”).
Another light fitting in my collection of cathedral light fittings.
We’d had a good run through the Cathedral, more information from Mayka than I could take in!
This part of the original wall around the city was saved, not sure why, but they built the new houses around it.
We’re now approaching the original Cathedral (which is closed up), and that cathedral had been built over an old mosque, which was apparently built over an Arab mosque. I wanted to ask what the cylindrical building was but they’d hurried on by then.
Cobble stones in many of the old city streets which Mayka said had arrived in Cadiz as ballast in many of the merchant’s ships.
You can see the Cathedral in the distance, and part of the old church. Beside it was a section that had been cordoned off with hoarding sheets so you couldn’t see inside. I however managed to put my hand and phone through a hole and caught some of what’s going on. What you see is part of an old Roman Theatre (there’s actually a sign in Spanish that tells you what it is LOL).
When I got back to the boat, I did a Google Earth search to see what the hoarding was hiding, and here it is, the Roman Theatre.
Mayka told us that they had had to stop excavation on the project because there were too many buildings that had been built over the site and the buildings would have to be demolished to reveal the whole of the theatre. I assume than when they have the money they’ll open what has been revealed to the public, it’s pretty impressive.
More walls from the old part of the city.
And more of the medieval city, they must have had big walls to protect themself from mauraders.
Lovely Park at the end of the walk.
It was only a 3 hour walk but OMG the amount of information Mayka gave us was overwhelming!
I would thoroughly recommend visiting Cadiz, and staying there longer than a day LOL. It’s a beautiful city, not too big, heaps of history, enchanting architecture and not too many tourists (that’s when there isn’t a cruise ship at the dock). Mayka was an amazing guide and I’d recommend anyone who does visit Cadiz, to get a guide with as much experience as she has (I have her phone # LOL).