Iglesia de Santiago (Church of Santiago), Cadiz

The Iglesia de Santiago (Church of Santiago), is a Catholic temple from 1635 in the Mannerist style. It was the headquarters of a school of the Society of Jesus in this city, of which today only the temple remains.

The church was built around 1563 , designed by Alonso Romero and belonged to the Jesuit College.

In the place there was a hermitage from the end of the Middle Ages, in which the Company of Jesus in Cádiz had established itself in 1564. After the assault and looting suffered by the city in 1596 by the Anglo-Dutch troops under the command of the Earl of Essex, the college was left in such poor condition that the original temple had to be rebuilt, now begun in the mannerist style of Vignola for the Gesu of Rome and later followed in the general approaches of the vast majority of the Jesuit churches.

The main façade is located at the foot of the temple, towards the Plaza de la Catedral, and is organized by 14 paired Ionic-style pilasters made with the usual oyster stone, characteristic of buildings in the city of Cádiz.

The church has two portals made of Mannerist-style marble, one on its façade facing the square, which was brought from Genoa and which is inscribed in a large semicircular arch, and the other facing Calle de Santiago dating from the middle of 17th century. At the confluence of the two facades a tower rises, made in two bodies, the first was built simultaneously with the construction of the temple and continues the articulation with pilasters of the entire main facade, while the second has an octagonal floor plan and is It is finished in a unique dome with a bulbous finish, a work from the 18th century, with baroque forms.