Cádiz Cathedral

Cádiz Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

One ticket covers the cathedral, the museum and the clock tower, and it is the tower that decides whether the visit is worth an hour or two. The climb is a continuous spiral ramp rather than a stair, built that way so that the watchman could ride up, which makes it one of the few church towers in Spain that people with weak knees can manage. The view is the best in the city: the whole peninsula, the ocean on three sides and the flat roofs of the old town.

Guided walks of Cadiz include the cathedral square and usually go inside, pairing it with the Roman theatre, the market and the sea walls. Tours about the Atlantic trade use the building as their main exhibit, since it was paid for with the profits of the American convoys. Audio guides are included in the ticket. Services are frequent and visiting stops during them, so arrive outside the obvious hours.

Visiting Cádiz Cathedral: what to see

Building began in 1722, when Cadiz had taken over the American trade from Seville and had money to spend, and finished in 1838, when it did not. That span shows in the fabric: baroque at the bottom, rococo in places and neoclassical at the top, with the original architect's plan abandoned and the intended materials downgraded as funds ran out. The dome, faced in yellow glazed tiles, is what you see from the sea and from every street corner in the old town.

Inside, the church is large and rather cold, its stone slowly eaten by salt air blown in off the Atlantic, and netting under some of the vaults catches what falls. The crypt beneath the sanctuary is the most memorable part, a low circular chamber with a flat stone vault and an echo that guides enjoy demonstrating; the composer Manuel de Falla is buried there. The museum holds silver and gold worked from American metal, including an enormous processional monstrance.

Cádiz Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Cadiz is at its best in spring and autumn, and the cathedral square is one of the places where the Atlantic wind makes itself felt even in August. Carnival, usually in February, is the city's great event and fills every street for ten days with costumed choirs; the cathedral keeps shortened hours then and accommodation is impossible. The tower is best in the late afternoon, when the light is behind you for photographs of the old town and the sea.

Sunday mornings are busy with services. The square itself has cafe tables and is a good place to sit before walking into the old fishing quarter, where the fried-fish shops and the bars around the market are the reason many people come to Cadiz at all. The beach at La Caleta is ten minutes away. Allow ninety minutes for the church, crypt, museum and tower together, and do the tower first if rain is forecast.