Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for cadiz
A City of Watchtowers
By Linda Tancs
Cádiz is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Spain. In fact, the Phoenicians named it Gadir and established a trading post there in 1100 B.C. It went on to become a thriving Roman port from which Christopher Columbus would later set sail for the New World. In the 18th century the city thrived thanks to international trade, a prosperity symbolized by its watchtowers. Approximately 160 watchtowers dominated the cityscape back then; over 100 remain today. The centerpiece is the Tavira Tower, located in the center of the city’s old town at its highest point above sea level. It’s named for the tower’s first watchman, Antonio Tavira.
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The Park of Kings
By Linda Tancs
Doñana National Park in Spain is a significant European nature reserve. Easily accessible from Cádiz, the oldest city in western Europe, it has seen its share of kings over the centuries: Philip IV, Philip V and Alfonso XIII hunted there. These days a host of threatened bird species needn’t worry about the sport of kings. The park’s lagoons, marshlands, dunes, scrub woodland and maquis provide restful cover for five threatened bird species as well as for one of the largest heronries in the Mediterranean region.
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