50 years ago, on March 6, 1975, the ministerial decree was signed creating the Provincial Historical Archive of Cádiz, giving legal status to a service that had been temporarily housed in the Palace of the Provincial Council of Cádiz for three years prior. At that time, the archive held about 5,000 volumes of notarial protocols, along with the Chiclana Mortgage Office records.
Since its founding, the archive, which moved to its current location at the Casa de las Cadenas in 1987, «has not stopped providing public service and incorporating collections to now total 140 documentary collections, both public and private, and eight million digital images of documents accessible online through the @rchivAweb platform of the Junta de Andalucía,» stated today the Minister of Culture and Sports, Patricia del Pozo, during the presentation of the 50th anniversary program of the archive, where a temporary exhibition showcasing the history of the archive was inaugurated.
The event was attended by the Government Delegate in Cádiz, Mercedes Colombo, the Deputy Director General of Archives at the Ministry of Culture, Ana López Cuadrado, the Secretary General of Historical and Documentary Heritage at the Ministry of Culture, Mar Sánchez Estrella, and the director of the Provincial Historical Archive of Cádiz, Santiago Saborido. The retrospective exhibition, which traces the history of the archive by gathering several relevant historical documents, is located in the central courtyard of the Cádiz palace and will remain open to the public until the end of April.
Del Pozo noted that the Provincial Historical Archive of Cádiz, owned by the state and managed by the autonomous community, focuses on «preserving, organizing, and disseminating its extensive documentary collections,» with the triple objective of «providing citizens with the tools to defend their rights, enabling the administration to manage the information it generates effectively, and bringing the testimonies of our rich past to all interested parties.»
Furthermore, the Minister of Culture and Sports has revealed some of the activities planned throughout 2025 to celebrate the 50 years of life and public service of this institution. These activities include various exhibitions of original documents, workshops for children and families, dramatized tours of the archive’s facilities, lectures by prestigious historians explaining their research based on the archive’s collections, scientific and academic conferences, as well as displays of some of its collections in other spaces around the city.
Over 500 years of stories
Like other provincial historical archives, the one in Cádiz was established to safeguard notarial records over a hundred years old. In the seventies, it opened its doors to the public at the Palace of the Provincial Council of Cádiz, allowing access to about 5,000 volumes of notarial protocols, as well as the records of the Chiclana Mortgage Office.
In 1980, the State, to which the provincial historical archives were originally assigned, acquired the palace of the Indies Shippers, Casa de las Cadenas, to convert it into the archive’s headquarters. After the rehabilitation and adaptation by architects Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz, the archive moved to this building in 1987.
Currently, the archive holds over 17,000 protocol books from the province of Cádiz – excluding the notarial district of Jerez and Algeciras – dated between 1513 and 1924, making it one of the most consulted collections, especially online, where 90% of the historical protocols of the city of Cádiz are already available.
Additionally, the Provincial Historical Archive of Cádiz has been adding new documentary collections. Currently, among others, it houses public records from the Civil Government, the Court, and cadastral records; the files of those repressed during the Spanish Civil War at the El Puerto de Santa María Prison; the archives of the Architects’ Association, with nearly 13,000 units of installation and almost 67,000 architecture projects, dated between the 60s and 90s of the last century; the Port Workers Fund; and other interesting collections such as the 25,000 files of large families or the archive of Spanish workers in Gibraltar.
The latest addition to this archive is the collection of researcher and historian Rafael Garófano, consisting of over 15,000 photographs and photographic artifacts, donated in 2024 and currently undergoing cataloging and digitization. It is one of the most important ancient collections in Spain, both in photography and cinema.
Among the many documents housed in this archive are, among others, Manuel de Falla’s primary school report card; the document of the first draw of the National Lottery, created in 1812 to fund the costs of the War of Independence; the confidential phone call in which the Civil Guard Command informed about the establishment of the Pre-Autonomous Regional Council of Andalusia and the election of its first president, Plácido Fernández Viagas, in May 1978; and the original manuscript of the Chains Privilege of 1692, acquired by the Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Andalucía for this Archive in 2023.