The Rivers School
The Rivers School
Published in
2 min readJun 21, 2018

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Tuesday: From Modern Era back to Roman Era

We met this morning in the beautiful Plaza de San Juan de Dios to begin the day with a visit to the Ayuntamiento, the ‘modern’ city hall built in the 16th century. This striking architectural beauty, designed with arches, ionic columns and pórtico is topped by a pediment with a relief of Hercules, the mythical founder of the city. Students visited the modern seat of power and discussed budgets and the infrastructure of current day Cádiz while surrounded by elegant frescoes, paintings and medallions depicting famous gaditanos of the past.

A short walk from the plaza led to the central outdoor food market where the academic challenges of the day included visiting the market stalls to interview vendors to complete their worksheets on local gastronomy. A perfect end to the morning were stops at the churros vendor and a local cafe for rich, dark, think chocolate for dipping.

After our typical comida with families, we all met again at the Theatrum Balbi, the Roman theater built by Lucius Cornelius Balbus, an advisor to Julius Caesar who was born in Cádiz.

We entered the site via its education center where we were met by our local expert on this impressive theater built in 70 B.C. Sitting in the theater where all levels of society were entertained and where justice was meted out at the height of the Roman Empire was an awe inspiring experience.

Our busy day ended with a fast paced race through the Barrio del Pópulo to answer questions about the Roman era.

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The Rivers School
The Rivers School

The Rivers School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for students in grades 6 through 12.