Museum of Cádiz

Museum in Cádiz

Museum Of Cádiz 2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 / Axel Cotón Gutiérrez

Museum Of Cádiz 3 — CC BY-SA 4.0 / Axel Cotón Gutiérrez

Museum Of Cádiz 4 — CC BY-SA 2.0 / VIATOR IMPERI

Museum Of Cádiz 5 — CC BY-SA 4.0 / Axel Cotón Gutiérrez

Museum Of Cádiz 6 — CC BY-SA 4.0 / Axel Cotón Gutiérrez

Museum Of Cádiz 7 — CC BY-SA 2.0 / Emilio J. Rodríguez Posada

Painting By Sala De Zurbarán, Museum Of Cádiz — CC BY-SA 2.0 / Alonso de Mendoza

The site of the museum of Cadiz is on a land from the Convent of Saint Francis. Since 1935 it was housed the city’s archaeological finds. At first, the fine art and archaeology museums were two separate entities. However, in 1970 they joined to form what is today known as the Museum of Cádiz. In 1980, it underwent an extensive refurbishment and was divided into three sections, Archaeology, Fine Arts and Ethnography.

On the ground floor of the museum you will find the Phoenician and Roman archaeological artifacts. Eight rooms offer a journey back in time with the displays from different periods. The artifacts are from the prehistoric, Phoenician, Roman and the Middles Ages and were often found buried beneath Cádiz. They include the Phoenician sarcophagi, and Roman sculptures recovered from Baelo Claudia and Cádiz’s Roman Theatre. The sea appears as a recurring feature in many of the displays, since maritime importance of the Bay of Cádiz.

The Department of Fine Arts also comprises of eight rooms, and exhibit five centuries of painting starting from the sixteenth century. Due to the number of works from the Baroque period (1600 to 1750), it has three dedicated rooms; which include most of the paintings made by Zurbarán for the Charterhouse of Jerez de la Frontera, as well as paintings by Murillo, Alonso Cano and José de Ribera. Another is dedicated to the European Baroque, with pieces by maestros such as Rubens among the collection. There are two rooms which are dedicated to the nineteenth century and have examples of costumbrista painting and historical artefacts. Lastly, there are two rooms dedicated to the twentieth century and have paintings by Sorolla, Zuloaga, Pérez Villalta and Miró.

Department of Ethnography house a collection of Tía Norica puppets, a tradition in Cádiz which has over 200 years of history. The exhibition enables you to learn about Tía Norica puppetry tradition that reached its zenith in the early-20th century when Falla wrote music to accompany shows, and Picasso even painted the scenery!

The Museum of Cádiz appears in our Complete Guide to Visiting Cádiz!

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