Cadiz Museum
The Museum of Cádiz is the city museum in the old town of the Andalusian city of Cádiz . It is located on Plaza de Mina in the northern part of the old town.
History and use of the building
The building was created in its current basic structure through a reconstruction by the architect Juan Daura based on his design from 1838, with which part of the secularized Franciscan Convont was redesigned. The Plaza de Mina was originally the kitchen garden of the Franciscan convent. In 1852 some of the rooms were given museum use by the Academia de Bellas Artes (the "Academy of Fine Arts"). As the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, above all pictures and other objects from the secularized monasteries were presented. The impetus for an archaeological orientation of the museum was the discovery of a human-like sarcophagus in 1887. It was not until 1870 that both branches of the museum were combined under the name "Museo de Cádiz". Since then, the ground floor has been used for the archaeological collection, the first floor for the so-called "fine arts" and the second floor for ethnography and contemporary art. The museum gained additional exhibition space through the inclusion of the Casa de Pinillo, a town house from the 18th century with a lookout tower from this period that is typical of the city.
On the ground floor, room I shows the prehistory of the region, room II shows the urbanization in Iberian times, halls III to VII show the Roman period and room VIII shows the Middle Ages. On the first floor, halls I to IV house the exhibits from the 16th to 18th centuries, room VI the coin collection and halls V to VII from the 19th and 20th centuries. Some of the plans for the second floor are still being implemented.
The outstanding exhibits of the archaeological department include the two Phoenician marble sarcophagi from the 5th century, which depict a man and a woman lying down. A stele of the goddess Tanit comes from Phoenician times . A larger than life statue of the Emperor Trajan comes from the Roman city of Baelo Claudia .
The Fine Arts section features paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán , Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and by Flemish masters. A small picture of Miró was given to the museum by the former Spanish President Felipe Gonzalez and his wife.
Web links
Coordinates: 36 ° 32 ′ 5.8 " N , 6 ° 17 ′ 47" W.