CADIZ, a city of Spain, capital of the province of the same name, which forms a part of Andalusia; is situated at the extremity of a narrow tongue of land projecting 5 miles N. W. from the isle of Leon, 95 miles S. S. W. of Se ville by rail, 7 miles S. W. of Xeres. On the W. and S. the Atlantic Ocean washes the city, and on the N. and N. E. the Bay of Cadiz, a deep inlet of the At lantic, forming an outer and an inner bay. The city, which is walled and de fended from the sea both by a series of forts and by low shelving rocks, is about 2 miles in circuit, and presents a remarkably bright appearance, with its shining granite ramparts, and its whitewashed houses crowned with ter races and overhanging turrets. Many of these flat roofs are also used as cisterns, the town being poorly supplied with water, which is brought from Santa Maria, 6 miles to the N. by sea, and 19 by rail. The streets are well paved and lighted, regular, but narrow, and there are some pleasant public walks, the most frequented of which is the Alameda, by the seaside. Cadiz has few public buildings of note; its two cathedrals are indifferent specimens of ecclesiastical architecture, but possess some excellent pictures by Murillo. It reached its highest prosperity after the discovery of America, when it became the depot of all the commerce with the New World; declined greatly as a com mercial city after the emancipation of the Spanish colonies in South America; but again revived, owing partly to the extension of the Spanish railway sys tem, and partly to the establishment of new lines of steamers.
Cadiz is one of the most ancient towns in Europe, having been built by the Phoenicians, under the name of Gaddir ("fortress"), about 1100 B. C. It after ward passed into the hands of the Car thaginians, from whom it was captured by the Romans, who named it wades, and under them it soon became a city of vast wealth and importance. Occu pied afterward by the Goths and Moors, it was taken by the Spaniards in 1262. In 1587 Drake destroyed the Spanish fleet in the bay; nine years later Cadiz was pillaged and burned by Essex; and in 1625 and 1702 it was unsuccessfully attacked by the English. From 1808 the headquarters of the Spanish patri ots, Cadiz was blockaded by the French from February, 1810, until Aug. 25, 1812, when the victories of Wellington forced them to raise the siege. It was captured in 1823 for Ferdinand VII. by the French, who held it till 1828; and it was the birthplace of the Spanish rev. olution of 1868, as well as the scene in 1873 of an Intransigente rising. Pop. about 65,000.