Cádiz

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General information
Continent	Europe
Location	Iberian Peninsula
Points of interest	Spanish royal palace
Notable inhabitants	King Ferdinand VI The Spaniard
Societal
Population	Spanish
Affiliation	Spain King Ferdinand VI
Behind the scenes
First appearance	On Stranger Tides
Latest appearance	On Stranger Tides

Cádiz was a city and port in southwestern Spain. Cádiz was the oldest continuously-inhabited city on the Iberian Peninsula and possibly all southwestern Europe. It was a principal home port of the Spanish Royal Navy since the accession of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty at the beginning of the 18th century. Of all Cádiz's inhabitants, the most notable was King Ferdinand VI who, in his reign, resided in the royal palace.

History

The city of Cádiz was founded by the Phoenicians in 1100 BC. It started off as a trading post for various commodities like tin, silver and Ambar. After the Moorish reign in the 16th century, the city began to prosper. It had an excellent strategic location; perfect for trading with the New World. It was from here that Christopher Columbus made two of his epic voyages to America.

In 1587, Cádiz was attacked by a squadron of English ships, commanded by the notorious freebooter Francis Drake. The Spanish were caught by surprise, and Drake managed to destroy thirty-seven naval and merchant vessels in the harbor, which postponed the Spanish invasion of England. Some time after his accession to the throne of Spain in 1746, King Ferdinand VI made Cádiz his residence.

Quest for the Fountain of Youth

A carriage arrives to the royal palace.

"I have a report. The Spanish have located the Fountain of Youth. I will not have some melancholy Spanish Monarch—a Catholic—gain eternal life!"

―King George II

In 1750, a gold-trimmed carriage raced from the harbor as it arrived to the Cádiz royal palace, where a Spanish captain and fisherman showed King Ferdinand their discovery of an ancient sailor whom they caught in a fishing net off the coast of Spain. The old castaway was found to be clutching the ship's log of the Santiago, a Spanish vessel that vanished two centuries before, which told of explorer Ponce de León's fabled discovery of the long-lost Fountain of Youth. After examining the logbook, Ferdinand realized that the legends of Ponce de León's search for the Fountain of Youth were true. And so with this knowledge, King Ferdinand immediately sent his most trusted agent, only known as "The Spaniard", to find the Fountain.

Upon this discovery, King George II would receive a report of the Spanish having located the Fountain of Youth. He sent Hector Barbossa, a reformed pirate and privateer of England, to find the Fountain before the Spanish. But King George didn't realize that they planned to destroy the Fountain, rather than to gain eternal life. In the end, Spanish had successfully destroyed the Fountain.

Behind the scenes

• For filming On Stranger Tides, a scene of a carriage arriving to the royal palace in Cádiz was filmed at Castillo San Cristobal in Old San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. Castillo San Cristobal was one of the two great fortifications built by Spain to guard San Juan from land attack. Construction began in 1634 and was completed in 1783, making it absolutely period-correct for the film's mid-eighteenth-century setting.
• Cádiz is the first European city to appear in the POTC film series, London being the second.
• While Cádiz first appeared in On Stranger Tides, it was first mentioned in Gil Derga's profile for Pirates of the Caribbean Online.

Appearances

• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (First appearance)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization)
• LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Non-canonical appearance)

Sources

• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide
• The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

External links

• Cádiz on Wikipedia

Notes and references

Locations in Pirates of the Caribbean
Africa Barbary Coast – Calabar – Egypt – Kerma – Slave Coast – Tripoli The Americas Boston – Florida – Louisiana – Mexico – New Orleans – North Carolina Panama – Peru – Savannah – Virginia – Yucatán Peninsula Asia Bombay – China – Hong Kong – India – Nippon – Shanghai – Singapore The Bahamas Andros – Nassau – New Avalon – New Providence The Caribbean Antigua – Black rock island – Cuba – Devil's Triangle – Dominica – Guadeloupe – Hangman's Bay – Hispaniola Ile d'Etable de Porc – Isla De La Avaricia – Isla Cruces – Isla de Muerta – Isla de Pelegostos Martinique – Padres Del Fuego – Port Royal – Poseidon's Tomb Puerto Rico – Saint Martin – San Silvestre –Shipwreck Island – St. Lucia – Tortuga – Unnamed Island Europe Barcelona – Cádiz – France – Gibraltar – Great Britain – Holland London – Marseille – Paris – Portugal – Scotland – Seville – Spain – Other locations Davy Jones' Locker – Farthest Gate – Ice Passage – Isla Sirena
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