The Brilliance of Cadiz's Urban Design

It's a pedestrian, YIMBY, retail, public space dream

Hey there, I’m just back from my quick trip to Spain and am excited to share this urbanist guide to the city with subscribers. I hope you will upgrade to experience this trip! But if not, you can see a few photos without much commentary on my new Instagram handle.

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The one photograph in this whole post that I didn’t take — I wanted you to get a panoramic view.

As I wrote earlier this week, I recently traveled to the town of Cadiz, where I spent a summer in a homestay program nearly 30 years ago, and where I’ve longed to return to since.

The city of Cadiz, which peaked at 150,000 people in the 1980s and now has about 117,000 people, is located in Andalucia, the southernmost province of Spain. It’s one of the oldest cities in Western Europe, founded by the Phoenicians after the Trojan War in 1100 B.C.

Here’s a 1906 map of old Cadiz that shows its urban layout, which hasn’t changed much since then. Not shown here is the new part of Cadiz, which extends beyond the old town’s 16th-century fortified wall and is full of modern buildings and beaches. My guide to the city covers both parts.

Suffice it to say, with so much history, Cadiz is an amazing city to visit. But it’s also jam-packed with urbanist goodies.

If you you think we built things better a century ago, wait until you see what a 3,000-year-old city can offer!

• A largely car-free town center

• Entirely multi-family housing stock

• Retail or commercial space on the first floor of nearly every residential building, creating a 5-Minute City

• More gorgeous parks, plazas, and public spaces per capita than any other city I know

• Waterfront esplanades and beaches

• And on top of this, historic buildings with tremendous charm

So let me take you on an urbanist photo tour of this magical place! Please note that this post is LONG and will get clipped by your email server — be sure to click on “View Entire Message” at the bottom to read the whole post. You will know you have reached the end when you get to my (very not thirst-trap) beach selfie.