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House of Ibero-America

This is the former Royal Jail of Cádiz, a neoclassical building of the Enlightenment. In 1792 the city decided to replace its old prison, badly sited and badly built, and Torcuato Benjumeda designed the new one in 1794. Juan Daura completed parts of the building, which began operating as a jail in 1836. It remained a prison until 1966 and housed law courts from 1991 to 2006. It was then recovered by the City Council and refurbished as the Casa de Iberoamérica, a municipal cultural centre that opened in January 2010. The plan is rectangular and symmetrical, with a square central courtyard and two smaller ones, surrounded by cells and rooms on two floors. The façade has Tuscan pilasters and a projecting central section with four Tuscan columns. Today it houses exhibition rooms, an auditorium and a library.

Things to do at House of Ibero-America: 3 missions

• Peek into its inner courtyardsIf it is open, go in and look for the square central courtyard and the two smaller courtyards around which the rooms are arranged.
• Walk round the former Royal JailWalk the outer perimeter of the building and notice its rectangular, symmetrical plan, designed in 1794 as a prison.
• Count the four Tuscan columns on the façadeFrom the street, look at the projecting central section and find the four Tuscan columns and the pilasters that run along the rest of the façade.

Near House of Ibero-America

Source: Wikipedia - Cárcel Real (Cádiz)