Museo de Cadiz
* NOT FOUND *In this museum you can find some of Andalusia’s best collections of Roman and Phoenician archeology dating from 8th Century BC to 3rd Century AD. Cadiz, one of Europe’s oldest cities, is believed to be founded in 1100 BC by the Phoenicians who originally named it Gadir.
The museum is divided into sections
First Floor-Archaeology
Second Floor-Fine Arts
In the archaeology section, we found the most spectacular finds for the museum,two Phoenician sarcophagi. A male sarcophagus uncovered in 1887 and a female uncovered in 1980. These were both made out of 5th century BC marble. They were characteristic of an Egyptian funeral and can only be explained being in this area by the trade that carried on by the ancient city of Gades with the ports of the eastern Mediterranean. Only two have been found as only the very wealthy could afford to have this marble brought into this area.
Besides the Phoenician sarcophagi, we also saw all of the jewelry, pots, etc. that were included in the burial grounds. They felt these would be needed in the afterlife. Also on this floor we looked at the different types of Roman burials- cremation as well as interments along with the items that were found in the grave sites. We also took a quick glance at some of the Roman statuary.
In the fine arts section, we saw Spain’s most important Zurbaran collection, created by the 17th century artist Francisco de Zurbaran. He created these paintings for the high altar of the Carthusian monastery in Jerez- these are considered to be among his finest works.