It may seem obvious, but it is never harmful to remember that the soul and the raison d’être of Cádiz’s capital is its port. It has been so since the most remote antiquity, when the Phoenicians arrived around the 10th century BCE and established here one of their main points of commercial exchange with the primitive peoples of the Iberian Peninsula. That is why, when someone asks “What to see in Cádiz?”, the answer, paradoxically, tends to circle back to its origins: the remnants of that port enclave, a finding that can be visited and admired at any time of year and that, moreover, has become one of the city’s most attractive novelties.
The ancient city of Gadir
The way this place was found has depth, artistry, and plenty of character: in a basement in the Santa María neighborhood, for decades stood a mythical flamenco tablao, The Blue Bird’s Cave. There, among wooden tables and rush chairs, whitewashed walls, the smoke of tobacco and the aroma of sherry, he took some of his earliest steps as a child artist Camarón de la Isla.
The tablao closed its doors in the 1980s and that was that, until new owners decided to reactivate it. To do so they chose to expand the venue and, while digging behind one of the walls of the room, the surprise erupted. What they found were parts of the walls of one of the berthing piers erected by the Phoenicians for the ancient city of Gadir, as well as the shipyard, that is, the place where boats were assembled and repaired.
So in this cave, where today the echoes of good flamenco reverberate with a full weekly program, it is also possible to approach a very important part of Cádiz’s historical heritage (guided tours are offered).
Unfortunately, the current port is very distant from city life, even though the large esplanade serves as the venue for occasional concerts and festivals such as Nosinmúsica, which takes place in summer. But, as has happened in many other coastal points of the country, there is a program underway to organize the waterfront: the so-called Cadiz City Dock.
