Cádiz inaugurates exhibition on its port and commercial legacy

Monday, September 14, 2026. The Mayor of Cádiz, Bruno García, and the President of the Port Authority of the Bay of Cádiz, Teófila Martínez, today inaugurated the exhibition Cádiz, Gateway to the World, installed at the dock fence.

The exhibition brings together about thirty large-format images, three meters wide by two meters high, that trace Cádiz's historical role as one of the great centers of international trade and as a meeting point between cultures and continents.

The exhibition features images by designers Paula Alenda and Alfredo Candela and scientific advice from Pablo Ortega del Cerro, tenured professor of Modern History at the University of Cádiz; Arturo Morgado García, professor of Modern History at the University of Cádiz; and José María Gener Basallote, from the Cádiz City Council.

The exhibition is structured into four major stages, allowing visitors to explore the transformation of Cádiz from its role as an auxiliary port to Seville to its consolidation as one of the main commercial, scientific, and maritime centers of the Hispanic world. In this sense, during the era of the "Emporium of the Orb," the port of Cádiz was the gateway for goods from the four then-known continents. Products, food, raw materials, and luxury items arrived in the city through its docks, but so did flavors, customs, knowledge, and ways of understanding the world, leaving a deep mark on Gaditanian society.

The President of the Port Authority of the Bay of Cádiz, Teófila Martínez, highlighted that "it is especially significant that this history is told precisely at the dock fence, in that meeting space between the port and the city. Because to speak of the history of Cádiz is, inevitably, to speak of its port since, for centuries, from the dock of Cádiz, the world entered the city."

The city's mayor, Bruno García, thanked the collaboration and involvement of institutions such as the Port Authority and Fundación Cajasol in the 'Proud of our history' program, which in this third edition is dedicated to Cádiz, Emporium of the Orb, "one of the historical periods of greatest splendor of our city, where the role of the port was fundamental, being the center of trade and the bridge of connection between the four continents." He added that "Cádiz, throughout its history, has always been linked to the sea and has had a port vocation. With this exhibition, we remember our past and everything that happened in this port, we bring it to the present to look to the future with that same open and unifying spirit."

The exhibition thus invites visitors to rediscover an essential part of Cádiz's identity and to understand how its maritime and commercial vocation contributed to making it a city open to the world.