Cadiz is a city bustling with life. To get to know it, it is necessary to walk without haste through its streets, to talk with its people, to walk all over the parks and avenues with thousand-year-old plants, to enjoy its atmosphere on open-air terraces and busy bars... but always with a marked Andalusian touch. Cadiz is a sea city full of light. The walls of the "Puertas de Tierra" (Land Gates) clearly separate the modern part from the old one; the latter with narrow streets, small squares and very typical places such as "La Viña", old fishermen’s quarter where you can taste the famous "fried fish", or such as the quarters "El Mentidero" or "Santa María", the very seat of flamenco singing, such as San Juan de Dios Square, where you can still rent the traditional horse-drawn carriages; or such as the quarter "El Pópulo", old Medieval town.

Cadiz stands on a peninsula jutting out into a bay, and is almost entirely surrounded by water. Named Gadir by the Phoencians, who founded their trading post in 1100 BC, it was later controlled by the Carthaginians, until it became a thriving Roman port. According to mythology, it was Hercules who founded Gadir, which means "closed site". In the V century BC, the Carthaginians transform Cadiz into the power center of their actions on the Peninsula. The Carthaginian leaders, Amilcar Barca, Asdrubal and Hannibal, settle in Gades during the Phoenician Wars.