The Town
Unlike most other ports of its size, Cádiz seems immediately relaxed, easy-going, and not at all threatening, even at night. Perhaps this is due to its reassuring shape and compactness, the presence of the sea and the striking sea fortifications and waterside alamedas making it impossible to get lost for more than a few blocks. But it probably owes this tone as much to the town's tradition of liberalism and tolerance - one maintained all through the years of Franco's dictatorship even though this was one of the first towns to fall to his forces, and was the port through which the Nationalist armies launched their invasion. In particular, Cádiz has always accepted its substantial gay community, who are much in evidence at the city's brilliant carnaval celebrations.

Cádiz is more interesting in its general ambience - its blind alleys, cafés and backstreets - than for any particular buildings. As you wander, you'll find the Museo de Bellas Artes , at Plaza de Mina 5 (Tues 2.30-8pm, Wed-Sat 9am-8pm, Sun 9.30am-2.30pm; Oct -Mar Tue-Sat closes 6pm; ¬1.50, free to EU citizens), just across the square from the turismo. This contains an impressive local archeological display and a quite exceptional series of saints painted by Francisco Zurbarán , brought here from the Carthusian monastery at Jerez and one of only three such sets in the country (the others are at Sevilla and Guadalupe) preserved intact, or nearly so. With their sharply defined shadows and intense, introspective air, Zurbarán's saints are at once powerful and very Spanish - even the English figures such as Hugh of Lincoln, or the Carthusian John Houghton, martyred by Henry VIII when he refused to accept him as head of the English Church. Perhaps this is not surprising, for the artist spent much of his life travelling round the Carthusian monasteries of Spain and many of his saints are in fact portraits of the monks whom he met.

Even if you don't normally go for High Baroque it's hard to resist the attraction of the huge and seriously crumbling eighteenth-century Catedral Nueva (visits, including museum: Tues-Sun 10am-1pm, plus Tue-Fri 4-7pm; ¬3), now undergoing a belated (and astronomically expensive) restoration. The cathedral is decorated entirely in stone, with no gold or white in sight, and in absolutely perfect proportions. In the crypt you can see the tomb of Manuel de Falla, the great gaditano composer of such Andalucía-inspired works as Nights in the Gardens of Spain and El Amor Brujo .

Over on the seaward side of the mammoth complex, the "old" cathedral, Santa Cruz , is also worth a look, its interior liberally studded with coin-in-the-slot votive candles. A Roman theatre (Tues-Sun 11am-1.30pm; free) has recently been excavated behind. To the north of the cathedral along c/Sacramento, the Torre Tavira (daily: June-Sept 10am-8pm; Oct-May 10am-6pm; ¬3), c/Marqués del Real Tesoro 10, is an eighteenth-century mansion with the tallest tower in the city, from where there are great views over the rooftops to the sea beyond; it also houses an entertaining camera obscura . Lastly, there are two churches of note for the paintings they contain. Foremost of these is the chapel of the Hospital de las Mujeres (Mon-Fri 10am-1pm; ¬0.60; ask the porter for admission), which has a brilliant El Greco , St Francis in Ecstasy . The other, an oval, eighteenth-century chapel, Santa Cueva (Mon-Sat 10am-1pm, plus Tue-Fri 4.30-7.30pm; ¬0.30), on c/Rosario, has three fine frescoes on Eucharistic themes by Goya .