The lovely Plaza San Francisco is one of those places in Cádiz where the past and everyday life blend naturally. Before you stands the Church of San Francisco, the last surviving part of a vast Franciscan convent founded here in the sixteenth century. At that time, the entire neighbourhood belonged to the monastery: the Cádiz Museum now stands where the cloister once was, Plaza de Mina was the vegetable garden, and the open space where you’re standing served as the great entrance courtyard. Inside, the church mixes sixteenth-century features with eighteenth-century baroque decoration, including stuccoed vaults, a grand rococo altarpiece and a 1699 tower that still keeps watch over the street. The square itself has two distinct areas: a small, intimate space in front of the church and a broader section that once hosted a market. Today it’s a popular, easygoing spot, full of cafés and shops and touched by the gentle sea breeze—the famous fresquito—that people in Cádiz love.