Cádiz Cathedral Museum

Where: Plaza Fray Félix s/n, 11005
Opening times: Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 1 pm, Tuesday to Friday from 10 am to 1 pm and from 4 pm to 7 pm.

If you happen to be travelling to Cádiz we recommend you to visit this and the many other museums the city boasts.

The building Casa de la Condaturía is located over the Roman Theatre cavea (the subterranean cells where wild animals were kept before combats), built by Cornelius Balbo the young in the 1st century BC The Cádiz Cathedral complex encompasses several elements structured around the tower of the Old Cathedral of Santa Cruz: the Casa de la Contaduría and the Casa del Canónigo Termineli, which date back to the 16th century, the Mudéjar courtyard and the Dean's house, built in 1500, which was first used by the chaplains and choir boys of the institution, and later became the College of Acolytes until the 1940s.

The Cádiz Cathedral

A small alabaster sculpture from San Sebastián is exhibited in an open space that shows the tower's masonry, some of the sculpture's golden coating, from the 17th century, remains. A staircase leads to the Bishop's room, who somehow contributed to the construction of the Cathedral or who were known for being linked to the city.

In the Courtyard of Casa de Termineli of the Cádiz Cathedral lies the Romantic Room, where religious paintings from the 19th century are exhibited: Saint Hermenegildo and Saint Inés, by J. Payer from Sevilla, Saint Filomena and Saint Isabel, by José Gutiérrez de la Vega, and the anonymous Saint Fernando. The collection is also comprised by a Virgin and Child with Angels by Juan José Urmeneta and an Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Ildefonso de Toledo, by José María Romero López, from 1847, as well as an anonymous Virgin with Child from the 18th century.

The Mudéjar courtyard of Cádiz Cathedral is a space where light is diffused by a canopy. From there we can access the inferior and superior cloisters of marble columns which support brick arches. Below lie the Roman and medieval ruins. In the northern bay hangs a painting of the Flemish school, depicting Sarah's expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, from the 18th century. In the western bay an impression of Saint Francis' wounds is exhibited, copied from Murillo's painting (today in the city's museum).

Crossing the courtyard, the museum floor can be accessed through the eastern room, where there is an Annunciation of the Virgin and an Archangel Gabriel, from the Sevilla baroque school of the 17th century. There are also the Flemish-Spanish oil tableaux, The Arrest of Christ and The Coronation of Thorns, from the 16th century, and the Mannerist Annunciation and Adoration of the Shepherds from the Sevilla school. An oil on ebony veneer Crucifixion that hangs from the wall is an excellent representative of the painting of the second half of the 17th century.

In the Ivories Room, the Crucified by late 18th century sculptor Pedro Muñoz is exhibited, together with the Immaculate Conception, an Italian sculpture from the same time, a copy of the Vera Faz from Jaen. Also in display are almost life-sized chryselephantine sculptures of the patron saints Servando and Germán. Framed in silver filigree and made by hispanic-philippine artists from Binondo (Philippines) towards the middle of the 19th century, they are colloquially known as los chinos (the Chinese men).

Even if you are not religious we recommend a tour of Cádiz Cathedral as it is a good example of the different architectural styles that reigned at some point or other in Cádiz and Spain as well as a good exhibition of art from different centuries and schools.