Vue du Port de Cadix, Du Côte du Mole, prise du chemin de Pontales, lors de la sortie des Escadres..

Title

Vue du Port de Cadix, Du Côte du Mole, prise du chemin de Pontales, lors de la sortie des Escadres..

Description

Beautiful total view of the city of Cadiz with off shore ships and rurally scenes in the foreground.

dated 1782

Artist

Allix/Noel

Historical Description

According to legend, the city was founded by Heracles; the city coat of arms still refers to it today with the inscription "Hercules Fundator Gadium Dominatorque". Gadir became a thriving commercial center under the Phoenicians. With the expansion of Carthaginian rule in the west, Cadiz came to their empire and developed since about 500 BC. BC to the most important trade center of the Carthaginian Atlantic traffic. Cádiz was famous in antiquity for its sanctuary of Melkart / Herakles (on the Isla de Sancti Petri), which Hannibal is said to have visited before his famous journey across the Alps. With the fall of the Roman Empire, Cadiz also lost importance. After the discovery of America, Cadiz became important and flourishing as a major trading hub for Spain's overseas colonies and as a port for the Spanish silver fleet. Columbus also sailed from a small town in the Gulf of Cadiz called Puerto de Santa María on his second trip to the New World in 1493. Wealth made the city the target of barbarian pirates from Algeria, who raided several times in the 16th century but were repelled, and the target of enemy attacks by the English. The latter destroyed the Spanish fleet in port under Francis Drake in April 1587, which meant that the Armada was only able to set sail a year later. In July 1596 the English, under Charles Howard, the Earl of Essex and Walter Raleigh, looted and burned the city itself, cremated the Spanish fleet again and left with great loot. During the Anglo-Spanish War of 1625, the English failed to conquer the city. In the 18th century, the focus of trade in Spanish colonies in America shifted more and more from Seville to Cadiz because the latter city had the better port. Cadiz experienced a new heyday, which also did not stop the earthquake of 1755.