Huelva Province

Huelva is a Spanish province located to the west of the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its capital is the city of Huelva. With a population of 528,763 in 2022, it ranks 31st in population by province at the national level, as well as being the least populated province in Andalusia.

It is bordered to the north by the province of Badajoz, to the east by the province of Seville, to the southeast by the province of Cádiz, to the south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the west by Portugal.

It was constituted as a province in the administrative division of 1833, conforming to municipalities until then belonging to the Kingdom of Seville, with the exception of two that belonged to the former province of Extremadura.

Administratively it is divided into 80 municipalities, grouped into 6 judicial districts.

Its economy, as in the rest of Spain, is dominated by the tertiary sector (57% of GDP), which includes tourism. The secondary sector has a greater relative weight than in the rest of Andalusia, due to the important chemical complex (linked to mining) and the La Rábida refinery, an important source of employment in the province. Among the activities of the primary sector, fishing stands out, one of its traditional and main livelihoods with one of the most important fishing fleets in Spain (Isla Cristina), and the new forced agriculture under plastic, mainly strawberries with denomination of origin (Almonte, Lepe, Rociana del Condado, Palos de la Frontera and Moguer). Also, within the primary sector, pig farming of the Iberian montanera breed has a great tradition and economic importance, highlighting the D.O.P. Jabugo Ham for its high quality and acceptance in the market.

It has extensive protected areas, including the Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche Natural Park and the Doñana National Park.

Since the Upper Paleolithic there is evidence of human settlements, having inhabited this territory numerous peoples and cultures, such as the Phoenicians, Tartessians, Turdetans, Romans, Visigoths, Muslims and Christians. Several of these towns coexisted with each other at certain times and contributed the richness of their cultures, which has shaped the idiosyncrasy of this province.

In the XIII century, the territory of the current province of Huelva was incorporated into the Crown of Castile, organized into royalties and lordships, among which the County of Niebla stands out, possession of the House of Medina Sidonia, together with other fiefdoms organized around Huelva, Palos de la Frontera, Moguer, Ayamonte and Gibraleón. Since then, the province has had a notable historical relevance thanks to its special maritime enclave, its proximity to the border with Portugal, its mining basin and the wealth of resources in the mountains, although the fact that stands out among all is the Discovery of America, which took place in these lands, where Christopher Columbus arrived in 1485 and where he organized his first voyage of discovery. Men like the Pinzón brothers, the Niño or the Franciscans of La Rábida were fundamental in the success of the company.

Toponymy and symbols

As is common in most of Spain, the province has taken its name from its capital, the city of Huelva. For this reason, it shares its official name with her, Onubense, alluding to the old Latin place name Onuba, which seems to be a derivation of the possible Phoenician name Onos Baal, which would mean Strength of Baal or Strength of Baal.

The coat of arms and the flag of the province of Huelva are its official symbols. The coat of arms is composed of two ovals. On the right is represented a fortress over the sea with a silver border on which the legend Portus maris et terrae custodia is written. On the left there are three caravels between two orbs in their color, on the sea and with a silver border with the legend: «October 12. 1492. August 3». On the lower edge is a horn of plenty and a caduceus. At the bell, royal crown open. For its part, the flag is rectangular, white and with a blue square in the center.

Between 1991 and 1998, the Archives Service of the Provincial Council carried out an inventory of the coats of arms of all the municipalities within the framework of the so-called Program for Legal Recognition of Coats of Arms and Flags.

History

Dolmen de La Zarcita

Prehistory and protohistory: culture of Huelva bronze, Tartessos and Turdetanos

There is evidence of human presence in the coastal area since the arrival of the first settlers to the Iberian Peninsula through the Strait of Gibraltar. Sites such as La Dehesa in the El Condado region date from the Neolithic, dolmens such as Soto, is located in Trigueros and is one of the most important in Europe^{[ citation required]} and other sites such as El Pozuelo or the remains of a walled city in La Zarcita that allow us to date human presence.

A well-identified culture appeared in the Bronze Age and came into contact with the Portuguese Southern Bronze Culture. One of its features is its funerary ritual, with collective burials in megaliths and individual burials, with a model that was also developed in southern Portugal. All this suggests that there must have been some kind of contact between these cultures.

The finds in the Huelva estuary also date from the final period of the Bronze Age, which, together with those in the Seminario area of the capital, are the ones that probably make the mouth of the Tinto and Odiel rivers in the area of the peninsula with the earliest continuous human presence, dating back to 3000 BC. C.

Area of influence of the jartessos

The Tartessians had a presence in those lands. Contact with the Greeks coincided with the rise of this culture in the VI century BCE. C. and allowed a cultural takeoff thanks to the metal trade. Although no important remains have been found that clearly identify its territory or if it had a ruling city. It has been possible to verify that an advanced Early Bronze Age culture flourished in these lands with metallurgical, agricultural and herding activities that traded with the eastern Phoenicians and Greeks at the dawn of the Late Bronze Age.

The arrival of the Phoenicians and, later, of the Greek trade did not produce general progress in the Tartessian people and their economy continued to be based on the same model, since the benefits of trade and metallurgy remained in the hands of minority social sectors Sites such as Tejada la Vieja in the municipality of Escacena del Campo, of special interest and study, or the necropolis of Cabezo de la Joya in the city of Huelva, demonstrate the imprint of this civilization.

The Tartessian kingdom fell into serious decline throughout the VI century BCE. C. The reasons for this disappearance were complex. The fall of Tyro into Assyrian hands produced a liberalization of trade in the western Mediterranean, a fact that the Greek colony of Massalia took advantage of, which made contact with the peoples who settled in the rich mineral deposits of northern Gaul. This event meant the loss of geostrategic power of Tartessos as an intermediary in trade, so the silver route was relegated to the background. The geopolitical situation in the Mediterranean changed with the irruption of Carthage, which reopened the old Phoenician trade routes. The battle of Alalia led to Carthaginian supremacy over the Greek and the crisis of the Greek colony of Massalia. Carthage relaunched the mineral trade in the Tartessos region, but this time controlled by the Punic colony of Gádir. The people Tartessio totally lost control of trade and even its independence with the Carthaginian conquest of the south of the peninsula.

The Turdetans, historical descendants of Tartessos and of their own ethnic roots, lived in practically the entirety of the current province and were considered by Strabo as "the most cultured of the Iberians". Cities such as Onuba and Ilipla were very important in this area.

Ancient Age: the Roman Betica and Beturia

In Roman times, the current province of Huelva was located in the regions of Beturia Céltica and Túrdula, within the Roman senatorial province of Baetica. The most important cities were Ilipla (present-day Niebla), Onuba Aesturia (Huelva), Arucci Vetus and Turobrica, both in the Aroche area. These cities lived from mining and maritime trade.

Rome built the first infrastructures in the area and exploited the mining regions more efficiently, living a period of splendor, not being able to match until the contemporary age a systematic exploitation of the same mining resources. Today you can see in the current mines the tailings of unusable waste from Roman activities, which are currently usable thanks to the best gangue separation techniques. The fall of the Roman Empire in the V century allowed Visigothic peoples to settle in the area in the long run.

From the Middle Ages to the end of the Old Regime

Visigothic period

With Roman imperial power sunk, the Visigoths advanced on the region. There are very few study sources from this time, believing that the region was relatively unimportant in the context of the south of the peninsula. The first continuous data on the Christianization of the area come from this period, with the diocese of Elepla (Niebla), whose first notice dates from 466. The tombstone of the girl Domigratia de Almonte is from the year 495. Others have been found inscriptions from that time in places as far apart as Almonaster la Real, Corteconcepción and Hinojales, a vast territory in which it is perceived that the work of evangelization was early and intense.

Al-Andalus

Walls of the city of Niebla

Situation of the Iberian peninsula towards the centuryXI

As in the rest of the peninsula, little resistance was offered to the arrival of the first troops from Africa. In the year 713 Niebla was occupied by the Muslims, becoming one of their kuras or coras. During the time of the emirate and the caliphate of Córdoba, the territories were totally or partially integrated into the coras of Huelva, Niebla, Mértola, Badajoz and Seville. With the fall of the centralized power of the caliphate, in 1031, these provinces became kingdoms of taifas. The taifa of Huelva and the taifa of Niebla, along with the others named, were gradually absorbed by the taifa of Seville.

Subsequently, the territory of the province was subdued by the Almoravids, with its capital in Granada, later disintegrated in the second taifas, submitted to the Almohad power with its capital in Seville and, finally, before its conquest by the Castilians, it was formed again a taifa around Niebla under Ibn Mahfot, extending their domains to much of the Portuguese Algarve.

Christian conquest

Under the influence of the Kingdom of León, the first incursions of the Christian kingdoms occurred with the conquest of the north of the territory (Sierra de Aracena) by Alfonso IX. In order to continue the reconquest, in the XIII century, after the capture by Alfonso X the Wise in 1262 of the cities of Niebla and Huelva, the current province gained importance as a border territory with Portugal, serving as a brake on the expansionist policy of this country and a large part of that border being called Banda Gallega.

A fundamental factor for the repopulation of the land was the feudalization of a large part of the territory. In 1369 Enrique II of Castilla granted Juan Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán, IV Lord of Sanlúcar, the County of Niebla for his fidelity in the first Castilian civil war, the first county with territorial jurisdiction that was granted to a nobleman outside the royal family Likewise, the towns of Huelva, Gibraleón, Palos de la Frontera, Moguer and Ayamonte also passed into the hands of various noble houses.

Discovery of America and Columbian places

At the end of the XV century, the seafaring vocation of its people developed, especially in Palos de la Frontera and in Moguer. In this area of the Huelva coast, one of the largest maritime activities on the peninsula, both fishing, commercial and military, had been developing. The sailors of the Huelva coast were required for various actions. In the peninsular war between the kingdom of Castile and Portugal, the main Castilian naval expeditions always required the presence of sailors, mostly from Palos de la Frontera, but also from Moguer or Huelva, experts in Atlantic navigation. These sailors had established prosperous trade relations with Mediterranean and North Atlantic Europe, based on the fishing and other products they obtained in the Guinea area, therefore, thanks to their activities and achievements in the Atlantic, they achieved international fame:

...because only those of Palos knew of old the sea of Guinea, as accustomed [they were] from the beginning of the war to fight with the Portuguese and to take away the slaves, acquired in exchange for vile goods.

Alfonso de Palencia, Chronicle of Henry IV. Decade III.

For this reason, the choice of this destination by Columbus for his intentions was not random or casual.

Men like Martín Alonso Pinzón, his brothers, Garcí Fernández, Fray Juan Pérez or the Niño brothers, were key in the discovery company of 1492, since, thanks to their determination and nautical skills, they managed to carry out a company which a priori seemed to be of uncertain results and very difficult to achieve at that time.

When Columbus first arrived in the Columbian Lugares in 1485, he did so at the Franciscan monastery of La Rábida, where he found refuge and hospitality. Fray Juan Pérez and fray Antonio de Marchena immediately became enthusiastic about the project of the Genoese. Columbus found the necessary help to open the doors to his project, both in the crown and among the men of the Tinto and Odiel region. Martín Alonso Pinzón turned out to be the great supporter of Columbus among the sailors of the area, since until he decided to be part of the company it was not possible to enroll the men necessary for the first Columbian voyage. In Moguer Christopher Columbus found the support from the abbess of the Monastery of Santa Clara, Inés Enríquez; the cleric Martín Sánchez and the landowner Juan Rodríguez Cabezudo. The Niño Brothers had an outstanding participation in the trip, and also contributed the caravel la Niña. Upon returning from the discovery trip, the Columbian vow was made in the church of the Monastery of Santa Clara.

Finally, with a crew of about 90 men, on August 3, 1492, the first Colombian expedition left the port of Palos de la Frontera, which took several people from Huelva to American lands and made the meeting of two worlds, which until then they had remained isolated from each other. These events put an end to the Middle Ages and ushered Spain into the Modern Age.

In the following voyages of Columbus, sailors from Huelva participated again and, although the admiral already left from Cadiz ports, men from this land once again participated in other outstanding voyages of discovery and exploration in the lands of the New World. Sailors from Huelva such as Pedro Alonso Niño, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón and Bartolomé Ruiz, among others, were protagonists of the so-called minor voyages or Andalusian voyages, among which the discovery of Brazil by the Vicente Yáñez Pinzón.

The close ties of these lands with Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a native of Jerez de los Caballeros and discoverer of the Pacific Ocean, should also be mentioned: in 1492 and 1493, the dates of the departure and return of the expedition that discovered America, He was in the personal service, as squire, of Don Pedro Portocarrero, VIII Lord of Moguer. He resided in the castle of this town and, in all probability, it was there that he had first-hand knowledge of the feat. A few years later he would embark for the Indies.

Juan Rodríguez Mafra participated as the pilot of the Nao San Antonio on the first round-the-world voyage initially commanded by Magellan and which would end with Juan Sebastián Elcano.

Among the evangelizers of the newly discovered peoples of America there were also Huelva residents such as Fray Juan Izquierdo, Fray Andrés de Moguer, Fray Juan de Palos or Fray Antonio de Olivares.

Evolution of Huelva manors

Lordships in the Kingdom of Seville towards the reign of Carlos I

After the reconquest of the current province of Huelva, the political-nobiliary division was made into royalties, which did not always maintain their condition, in its northern part and into lordships that ended up gaining importance later in its southern part. The northern area was conquered by the Portuguese, while the Kingdom of Niebla in 1262, in the time of Alfonso X, passed into Castilian hands. A powerful council was formed from his former kingdom that exercised significant control over its villages. From that moment on, two processes began in Campo de Andévalo, one for repopulation and the other for manorialization. The latter was carried out between 1266 and 1369.

The stately regime in the mountains

Around the first half of the XIII century, the westernmost towns of the Sierra Morena were reconquered by incursions of Portuguese military orders, during the reign of Sancho II of Portugal, without culminating in the repopulation. From the outset, fortifications were built along the entire border with Portugal due to the continuous skirmishes and it was populated with Asturian and Galician people. This line was based on the existence of a series of visually interconnected fortifications through signals with torches. Sancho IV the Brave, at the request of the Seville authorities, granted the privilege to several towns in the mountains for the construction of fortresses, which protected and stopped the continuous attacks from the neighboring country. The Castle of Santa Olalla was built, together with that of Cumbres Mayores, Fregenal de la Sierra and that of Aroche was rebuilt.

Sancho II of Portugal

Marca

In 1333, the Council of Seville tried to create another called Valencia near the town of Los Marines, segregating a part of the term and preventing the entry into it to the residents of Almonaster who did not want to populate the new place, which motivated its depopulation. However, the project was not consolidated and the new population disappeared. At the end of the XVI century, Felipe II, to alleviate his financial bankruptcy, requests authorization to dispose of the Church's patrimonial assets. Thus, in 1579, Pope Gregory XIII granted him a bull through which the towns of Almonaster, Zalamea and others were incorporated into the Crown. Felipe II ceded his rights over the town to Nicolás de Grinaldo, Prince of Salerno, due to debts contracted with the Crown, which in turn tried to sell its jurisdiction to the Marqués de la Algaba, but the residents interceded with the king so that the town remain royal, paying its inhabitants what was requested by it. On May 10, 1583, Almonaster became royal, forming part of the old Kingdom of Seville and adding la Real to its place name. Between the 17th and 18th centuries"> The activity of the population is based on agriculture, livestock and forestry tasks, such as the production of charcoal and vegetable ciscos. The demographic growth produced from the XVIII century, forces its neighbors to plow new farmland in a term with little land fertile for this, which is why they enter into numerous disputes and boundary conflicts with the neighboring towns. In the middle of the XVIII century, Almonaster again lost its jurisdiction and also its own, and became a town of manor, belonging Don Gregorio del Valle Clavijo, Count of Villa Santa Ana. He recovered his jurisdiction again in 1792, after a long lawsuit with the aforementioned count and having deposited 22,000 ducats in the Crown coffers.

Marquisate of Gibraleón

In 1306 Alfonso de la Cerda, grandson of King Alfonso X “el Sabio”, received the lordship of Gibraleón as part of the compensation established for renouncing his rights to the throne. Thus arose one of the oldest and most important manors of the Huelva territory, the object of disputes and noble ambitions. His granddaughter, María de la Cerda, married Pedro Núñez de Guzmán, lord of Brizuela and Manzanedo. His great-great-granddaughter, Isabel Núñez de Guzmán, Lady of Gibraleón, married Pedro de Zúñiga, 1st Count of Ledesma, a marriage from which Álvaro de Zúñiga, 1st Duke of Béjar was born, whose son Pedro de Zúñiga y Manrique, by marriage to the IV Lady of Ayamonte, she had Álvaro de Zúñiga y Guzmán, to whom Carlos I granted in 1526 the Marquesado de Gibraleón, brother of the 1st Marquis of Ayamonte. He died without legitimate issue, so the Marquesado de Gibraleón passed to his niece Teresa de Zúñiga Guzmán y Manrique, III Duchess of Béjar, who reunited both marquesados in her person, to later separate them again, granting them two children. Later, when the XIII Marquis of Ayamonte died without succession, the title would fall to the House of Arcos, which by marriage would pass to the House of Osuna. With the extinction of the latter, the marquisate passed to the XVI Duchess of Béjar, great-granddaughter of the IX Duke of Osuna, married to Luis Manuel Roca de Togores, I Marquis of Asprillas, in whose descendants the marquisate survives.

The border nature of the marquesado's lands, the transit of people and goods along the Camino de la Raya and the tensions with neighboring manors largely explain the existence of a very interesting set of fortifications medieval. Some of them take advantage of existing locations in the Islamic period; Although most of them are built at the initiative of the different lords between the XIV and XV. To this we must add, in the following centuries, the construction of the beacon towers on the coast and the reforms suffered by the old castles as a result of the wars with Portugal.

In addition to Gibraleón, Cartaya, San Bartolomé de la Torre, Villanueva de los Castillejos, El Almendro, Sanlúcar de Guadiana, El Granado and what was then the village of Trigueros belonged to the marquisate. Gibraleón took an active part in the discovery of America contributing with men and money.

Marquisate of Ayamonte

Gaspar Pérez de Guzmán y Sandoval, IX duque de Medina Sidonia, responsible for the fall of the VI Marquis de Ayamonte

At the end of the XIII century Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, known as "Guzmán el Bueno", founder of the House of Medina Sidonia, bought Ayamonte together with Lepe and La Redondela (in conjunction with a purchase of olive groves throughout Aljarafe). Within the same lineage, the Señorío de Ayamonte was held for the first time by Alonso Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno. With Teresa de Guzmán, daughter of the 1st Duke of Medina Sidonia and 4th Lady of Ayamonte, the lordship passed definitively to a minor branch of the House of Medina Sidonia, known over time as the House of Ayamonte. Her husband, Pedro de Zúñiga y Manrique, son of the 1st Duke of Béjar, received the title of Count of Ayamonte in 1485 from Queen Isabella I of Castile. In 1521 Carlos I elevated the county to the dignity of a marquesate.

In the year 1641, Francisco Manuel Silvestre de Guzmán y Zúñiga, fifth Marquis of Ayamonte, and after intercepting a letter between the Duchy of Medina Sidonia and the Marquis of Ayamonte along with reports from the recently independent Kingdom of Portugal, warning of the imminence of the Andalusian uprising, confirm Madrid's suspicions about the intentions of secession from Andalusia that arose after the passivity of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in defending the border with Portugal. When the plan was discovered, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, Gaspar Pérez de Guzmán y Sandoval, betrayed his cousin by agreeing with King Felipe IV and accusing him of treason, which led the Marquis of Ayamonte to legal proceedings and beheaded in The Alcázar of Segovia in the year 1648.

At the same time in the marquesado and after the incidents to abolish secession, the non-subsistence fishing economic activity enters with force already at the dawn of the century XVIII, by Levantine merchants who came to the western coasts of the province to, through salting, transport large quantities of fish (mainly sardines) to their ports of origin avoiding the food spoilage. These merchants ended up settling and adding wealth to the region with their work, mainly after the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, which wreaked havoc along the entire coast, including the collapse of the Higuera beacon tower in Matalascañas.

After the earthquake, the province had new land or, at least, a different coastline. The nuclei of Punta del Caimán, La Higuerita (Isla Cristina), Punta del Moral and others arise, scattered between what is now the Central beach of Isla Cristina and the vicinity of Urbasur.

Disputes over these new territories born as a result of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, after which Isla Cristina (La Higuerita or Real Isla de La Higuerita) was born in the XVIII and early XIX) on this western coast make the intervention of the Marina, since the crown has full authority over the kingdom's islands and they are not subject to lordship rights.

Already in the XIX century and as a consequence of the arrival of the French in Spain at the beginning of the century, the in Seville the National Supreme Board, due to the confusion that reigned then. As the French advanced, this Board left Seville and established itself in Ayamonte, calling itself the Supreme Board of Seville in Ayamonte. An architectural vestige is still preserved today in the neighborhood of Canela in Ayamonte, the hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, where the Junta was established and where the Gaceta de Ayamonte was printed, the official bulletin of the government in exile that later, when moving the Junta to Madrid due to the defeat of the French, would be called the Gaceta de Madrid.

Due to the dismemberment of the Marquesado de Ayamonte after the new territorial organization of Spain, when the jurisdictional lordships were abolished, the municipalities of Ayamonte, Lepe, La Redondela, San Silvestre de Guzmán (established thanks to a Puebla Charter of 1595) and Villablanca. A new municipality was also created, that of Real Isla de la Higuerita in 1833, remaining with its current name the following year and absorbing the municipality of La Redondela in 1877.

Currently, the title of Marquis of Ayamonte, along with that of "Greatness of Spain", is held by Pilar-Paloma de Casanova y Barón (daughter of Baltasar de Casanova y de Ferrer, and María Dolores Barón y Osorio de Moscoso, Dukes of Maqueda, Marquises of Montemayor, and del Águila, Barons of Liñola, Counts of Valhermoso and Monteagudo de Mendoza), married to Francisco José López de Becerra de Solé and Martín de Vargas. Pilar-Paloma de Casanova y Barón holds the titles of XXII Marquise of Ayamonte, XXVI Countess of Cabra, Marquise of Villa de San Román, "grande de España", among others.

Fog County

The last of the Islamic kings in the history of Niebla would be Ibn-Mahfoh, who in order to prevent his conquest, lent allegiance to Fernando III the Saint. Alfonso X reconquered it definitively in 1262, receiving the same jurisdiction as Seville. The siege was not easy for the besiegers or for the Islamic inhabitants since, due to the importance of the city's defenses, it lasted nine and a half months, with the population having to surrender due to hunger. The chronicles of the time say that from the walls they threw stones and darts with artifice and shots of thunder with fire, which has been related to the first use of gunpowder in Spain. Also, when the city was taken, an invasion of flies appeared which, by preying especially on the besiegers, was about to make them lift the siege. In addition, they say that Ibn-Mahfoh, to show that the siege was useless due to hunger, tried to deceive the Christian army by sending them a fattened ox, perhaps the last one left within the walls. For this reason, the westernmost door, through which the animal must have exited, is called "of the ox".

In 1369, after other failed attempts, King Enrique II handed over the city to the since then, Count of Niebla Juan Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, ending the period in which it had been governed as a council and once again enjoyed royal jurisdiction. This entails the confirmation of all the positions and trades of the rubiato council and a strong fiscal control over its neighbors. Almost a century later (in 1445), the Count of Niebla received a new distinction, becoming Duke of Medina Sidonia.

In the 15th century, the IV Count of Niebla initiated a very active policy of rebuilding the city, in which that it was ordered to include visible elements in the churches of San Martín and Santa María and, especially, the work of the fortress, demolishing for this purpose most of the still existing remains of the previous Islamic fortress. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 seriously affected the architectural heritage of this city.

During the XVI century, the Andévalo field dedicated a good part of its space to livestock, especially acorn-fed farming. In the census of 1534, the population of all the lordships of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia is estimated at 9,686 neighbors, some 50,000 people. Niebla had 403 neighbors (about 2,015 inhabitants).

Contemporary Age

Birth of the province

The provincialist process unleashed in Spain at the end of the XVIII century and the beginning of the XIX had its repercussions in the current province of Huelva, until then territory belonging to the Kingdom of Seville. The purpose of the enlightened reforms was a better government of the Spanish state and for this the existence of a balance between the various provinces of the kingdom was necessary. The balance should be both in surface extension and in number of inhabitants, always maintaining a geographical logic and respecting the historical tradition.

One of the territories that clearly produced an imbalance in both aspects was the so-called Kingdom of Seville, with a surface area and population much larger than most of the provinces. The common action of the state was to break up these ancient kingdoms and convert them into smaller provinces and therefore manageable by the central government.

The first process of disintegration was established by means of the Royal Decree of September 25, 1799, under the reign of Carlos IV, by which six new maritime provinces were created, among which was that of Cádiz, also integrated within the old Kingdom of Seville. For its part, Huelva was affected by this creation of the maritime province of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, which incorporated the entire coastline of the current Huelva province into its territories.

The province of Cádiz became established, but the same did not happen with the province of Sanlúcar. Among the causes of its failure (it would be abolished in 1808) is the relatively small population of its capital and the scarce internal cohesion of its territory, in addition to the rivalry that arose with Cádiz and the opposition from Seville.

With the creation of a maritime province on the south coast of the kingdom of Seville ruled out during the reform of 1813, once again eyes fell on the extensive territory of the kingdom of Seville. However, on this occasion the new borders were drawn in the eastern part of the kingdom and the creation of a new party or government in Écija, dependent on Seville, was thought of.

The proposal did not come to fruition due to the arrival of the absolutist six-year term of Fernando VII, during which the liberal reforms were paralyzed. The reforms carried out during the liberal triennium enjoyed a new and decisive impulse with the commission created by the government in 1821, which once again raised the question of the creation of a western province in the Kingdom of Seville, with Valverde del Camino being its capital. according to its centrality.

In general, the idea was well received, except for the capital status. The non-existence of a city with a greater population and historical weight in the region caused a dispute over the status of capital of the new western province. Faced with the controversy that arose, the commission asked the Sevillian deputies for advice, who advised against making Valverde the capital and, among the options of Huelva and Moguer, they opted for the second.

However, the commission ignored it and decided to make Huelva the capital. In the debate that arose in the Cortes session to make the decision, the opinion expressed by Colonel Ramón Sánchez Salvador undoubtedly had a lot of weight, who based his defense of the Huelva city on the availability of accommodation in this city, its capacity of attraction as a center of commerce and the shipment of productions from the interior, as well as in its health. In 2008, celebrations were organized in the city on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the capital.

The demarcation between the new province of Huelva and that of Seville was carried out without problems. The inclusion in Seville of Rocío, according to Bauzá-Larramendi's description, was merely anecdotal, since the law guaranteed respect for municipal borders. Thus, after the study commissioned to the Seville Court in 1829, the error was corrected.

Javier de Burgos, Gravud of the CenturyXIX

The borders with Extremadura were more conflictive. In the provincialization of Cortes in 1822, the towns of Fregenal and Bodonal de la Sierra were included in Badajoz, while historically Extremaduran towns such as Calera de León or Fuentes de León were added to Huelva, as well as Azuaga or Puebla del Maestre, from Seville.

The studies commissioned to the Courts of Seville and Extremadura changed the configuration again, this time being more favorable to the people of Extremadura: Higuera la Real was joined to Badajoz and the Badajoz sector annexed to Andalusia was limited to the towns of Arroyomolinos de León, Cañaveral de León and Guadalcanal (incorporated into Seville). The annexation of Fregenal de la Sierra to Extremadura aroused the protest of various towns in the north of Huelva, and for this reason the plan finalized by Fermín Caballero in 1842 contemplated his return to Andalusia, although it was never carried out.

Based on this 1822 project, in 1833 Minister Javier de Burgos, through the Royal Decree of November 30, 1833, definitively completed the process of provincial division and the province of Huelva will not change its borders to this day.

Even at this time, the repopulation process was continued, already with provincial powers, of this part of the peninsula. The foundation of Rosal de la Frontera, in the old municipality of Aroche with more than 700 km² and barely 2,000 inhabitants, is a good example of this. Its birth is due to numerous factors, a mixture between an enlightened utopia in which "the creation of an ideal, fair and balanced society is pursued, in which a new class of small, hard-working and well-mannered owners, structure a disciplined State and governed by Reason" and the need for strategic control on the border with Portugal. Legally, it has its origin in the Decree of June 29, 1822 on the repopulation of extensive areas, a power that the Government grants to the reestablished provincial councils. The lack of a common spirit and also of resources for the development of the proposed work ended with The initial utopian dream, however, the increase in population was soon achieved, as were its goals as a strategic location on the border.

Modern mining and industrial development

Exploitation of mines: South Philo

Due to the transfer of trade with the American territories to Seville and Cádiz, Huelva entered a period of decline from which it would not emerge until the 19th century XIX, with the intensive exploitation of its important mineral resources. Although the mines in the north of the province had been exploited for thousands of years, it was from this century onwards when French companies at first and, above all, later British companies such as the Rio Tinto Company Limited created for this purpose, those that from 1874 exploited the deposits of iron and copper pyrites located in the Andévalo area, mostly in the part close to the towns of Minas de Riotinto, Calañas and Tharsis (the latter in the municipality of Alosno). It was at that time when the province and especially Rio Tinto, in the words of businessman and mine historian David Avery, became "the largest mining center in the world".

Although all this implied demographic growth and modernization in the area (the basin grows, Huelva begins to stop being a small town and infrastructures are built such as the railway line from the mines to the port of the capital), the The mining basin would also be, during the first decades of the XX century, the scene of major social conflicts and stronghold of British exploitation, which that made Huelva people see how their mineral wealth was shipped abroad. Particularly tragic was the year 1888, known in the area as the "Year of the shots", when after a demonstration organized by trade unionists such as Maximiliano Tornet ended with a brutal charge by the army against the people in Minas de Riotinto. When the profitability of exploitations fell, the mines passed into Spanish hands, but employment in them decreased considerably due to modern exploitation techniques in some cases, and the exhaustion of exploitations in others.

Flight of Plus Ultra

The Plus Ultra in the port of Palos de la Frontera, before starting the flight

On January 22, 1926, the so-called Plus Ultra flight began from the Calzadilla Pier in Palos de la Frontera, from where Christopher Columbus also departed for the Indies. The flight covered the distance that separated Palos from the Buenos Aires border. It was the first flight between Spain and America, the one that traveled the most kilometers (10,270 km), was carried out in seven stages and required a single seaplane. The expedition was commanded by Ramón Franco Bahamonde. A seaplane of the Dornier Wal type was used, which is considered the most important aircraft designed by Dornier in the early 1920s. Alfonso XIII presided over the reception of the crew upon their return, on April 5, 1926, in the Monastery of La Rábida.

Civil War

The province of Huelva, like other Spanish provinces, was not immune to the situations and events prior to the coup d'état of July 18, 1936. Therefore, the most traditional sector and the one that wanted profound changes in Huelva, the radicalization of different groups throughout the republican period, the problem of the peasantry, clericalism and anti-clericalism, violence and -finally- the triumph of the Popular Front were the factors that unleashed the long civil war in Spain and the province. The days prior to the 18th, most of the population and the authorities sensed an uprising, so the Civil Guard was ordered to confiscate as many weapons as possible from citizens in their barracks and the arrest, on the 9th, of various Falangist politicians.

Therefore, on the 18th most of the province was loyal to the Republic and the coup did not succeed at first due to the lack of rebels in the area. From Huelva two military columns were sent to Seville to fight against the rebels; the first in charge of Haro Lumbreras, who, upon arriving in the Seville city, went over to the rebel side, placing himself under the command of Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, and the second - the Mining Column - coming from the Cuenca Minera and made up of leftists who had procured supplies. with dynamite from farms. On the 19th the Mining Column arrived, which was immediately defeated at La Pañoleta by De Haro's own forces. Once the column was defeated, those who did not die in the battle or were shot later fled to Huelva, venting their impotence against towns and churches.

Situation of the Spanish Civil War in September 1936. It is observed that there are still areas of the mountain range in the hands of the Republic

In this sense, the damage caused days before in churches such as La Concepción or the Monastery of La Rábida was evident. In Isla Cristina, the old church of Los Dolores was destroyed and demolished in the also old Plaza de la Constitución from the XVIII century where, After the war, the current Plaza de las Flores was built, occupying the spaces that previously belonged to the Plaza de la Constitución and the church. The Republic became strong these first days of the war in its bastions and imprisoned conservative citizens in some town halls, they even tried to burn down some makeshift prisons with their inmates. In these first days of the war the "Carranza Column" was sent from Seville » (under the command of Ramón de Carranza) that from the 24th occupied Chucena, Almonte, Bollullos, La Palma, Niebla, Trigueros, Beas, Valverde del Camino and the capital, on the 29th. province; Andévalo and the Sierra fell between August and September, so resistance, with the exception of the battle of El Empalme, was scarce, and the town of Isla Cristina went over to the rebel side that same day 29. The rapid succession of events in this province it prevented major warlike consequences (such is the case of the bombardments of the north or of Madrid) and, whether with one regime or another, stability was imposed in the area.

Occupied the province, Haro Lumbreras was named civil and military governor until February of the following year. From there he began a period of repression against citizens accused of Marxism, violent acts and leftist ideas, as well as against the guerrillas that subsisted in the mountains for a while. Because the "problem" of those who fled in the sierra anticipated in the province many of the elements that would occur shortly after in a large part of the country. For this reason, from the first moment hostilities began, many Republicans who fled the province were cornered in that area as they were surrounded by insurgent provinces or the border of a Portugal pro-coup. Thus, since August 1937, more than half the province needs to be declared by the new authorities as a "war zone", when Falangists, militias and the Civil Guard fight against one of the first guerrillas in Spain. But a large part of this contingent was made up of civilian population -women, children and even the elderly- who saw the possibility of hiding in the escarpment of the mountains until the hostilities ceased.

The occupation of Huelva meant for the insurgent army a strategic use of the border through which weapons could be passed from Galicia (from the first moment against the Republic), a fact that also anticipated the events in the rest of Andalusia. In this context, Huelva played an important role in these first weeks of the fratricidal conflict that would still take three years to conclude.

World War II and economic crisis

Barrio Reina Victoria (Huelva), one of the few remaining testimonies of the Anglo-Saxon presence

At the end of the war, the lack of food that plunged the country into famine was not so strong in Huelva thanks to its fishing resources. The fishing train that left the ports of Isla Cristina and Ayamonte supplied Castilla with food to the point of planning the construction in the Isla Cristina port facilities of several urban branches to directly load the fish on the trains, as as it had been done with the Jerez wine train. Ultimately the project never came to fruition.

After the Spanish conflagration, post-war Huelva witnessed the events related to World War II. Due to its large Anglo-Saxon and German population, especially in the capital, it played an important role during this conflict. Thus, the existence of numerous allied and Nazi spies (especially businessmen from the city and diplomats) who controlled each other and who considered the city a strategic enclave thanks to its port was notable. In this sense, there were many Allied ships that suffered sabotage and were even bombed by German planes from the Tablada base (Seville). Proof of this is the existing wreck at the mouth of the Huelva estuary. But where the role of the province was really important was in what was known as the Allied Operation Mincemeat in 1943, when the British secret service left in the nearby Punta Umbría the remains of an alleged English commander (William Martin, the Man Who Never Was) with false documentation and located by José Antonio Rey María, a local fisherman. This event came to the knowledge of the Nazis thanks to the help of the local authorities as the British army had foreseen, which put the Germans on false leads. The diversion of attention from the royal landing in Normandy, which brought about this plan of confusion, was decisive for the end of the war.

From those years onwards, the Huelva mountains began to lose population and to be poorly communicated and with little potential, beginning the rural exodus to cities such as Huelva, Madrid or Barcelona. Few municipalities in the province increased their census in the 1940s and most moved to well-consolidated cities where there was still an opportunity to work. Even at the beginning of the XXI century, the Sierra de Huelva has not recovered from its low economic competitiveness and continues to lose population, although at a slower pace.

From the middle of the 20th century to the present day

The arrival of Democracy was an important boost to the province. In the image, the Town Hall of the capital

To partly mitigate the unemployment generated by the inevitable closure of the mines, the Franco government created in 1964 the Development Pole, a complex that gave rise to the creation in the southern part of the province of an important, although highly polluting, chemical industry: natural gas, oil refinery, sulfuric and phosphoric acid factories, fertilizers, titanium dioxide, etc. Most of these companies are still in business today.

The progress achieved by the country since the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the democratic development allowed the province to begin to take off, although probably slower than that of other provinces, but firm. It is necessary to highlight since then the extensive agricultural development, within which the cultivation of strawberries stands out in its large sandy areas and which, due to the mild climate, allowed its export to European markets very early.

Another sign of provincial economic growth since the so-called Spanish economic miracle (1959-1973) was the great development experienced by holiday enclaves and summer residences typically occupied by Huelva residents such as Punta Umbria or El Portil. Of these, Punta Umbría, in 1963 and after the population growth as a result of its proximity to Huelva and being the holiday destination par excellence of the capital, was segregated from Cartaya, having reached a population close to that of its parent town hall (around to 10,000 inhabitants). Other nuclei developed at this time, although with an effectively more foreign use, are those of Matalascañas or Mazagón due to their location closer to the province of Seville.

In the field of the arts, the XX century on Huelva was also key. The province witnessed the birth and work of various painters and writers of recognized national and international prestige. In plastic arts, names such as Eugenio Hermoso, Daniel Vázquez Díaz or José Caballero stand out. But it is in the letters, with the work of the Moguereño winner of the Nobel Prize, Juan Ramón Jiménez, when the province achieves its greatest contribution to universal culture.

Geography

The province of Huelva is located in the westernmost part of Andalusia (Spain). To the north it borders the province of Badajoz (Extremadura), where Sierra Morena acts as the natural border between the Meseta and the Bética Depression. To the west, the Guadiana and Chanza rivers stretch 189.3 km along the border with the neighboring country of Portugal, although the same landscape exists on both sides of the river. To the south, the Atlantic Ocean ends the province with an extensive coastal area, which gives it an important marine character. Finally, to the east the province of Huelva borders the province, also Andalusian, of Seville, this time without a natural border between the two. In fact, Campo de Tejada, morphologically, is a natural continuation of Seville's Aljarafe.

Northwest: Portugal	North: Province of Badajoz	Northeast: Province of Badajoz
West: Portugal		This: Province of Seville
Southwest: Atlantic Ocean	South: Atlantic Ocean	Sureste: Province of Cadiz

Geology

Map of large geological units of the province

In the territory of the province of Huelva, two large geological units can be distinguished. To the north, coinciding with the morphological unit of Sierra Morena, the Hesperian Massif emerges, made up of Precambrian and Paleozoic materials folded during the Hercynian orogeny and which have been subjected to erosion ever since.

To the south of the previous one, there is a geological unit called Neogene and Quaternary depressions. This unit includes the areas that were submerged after the Alpine orogeny and that were clogged by sediments resulting from the erosion of Sierra Morena and marine intrusion.

Hesperic massif

The Iberian or Hesperian Massif represents the most southwestern part of the European Hercynian Chain. The materials of the Iberian Massif crop out in Andalusian territory to the north of the Guadalquivir valley, coinciding with the mountainous alignments of Sierra Morena, therefore affecting the northern half of the Huelva province. They are made up of Precambrian and Paleozoic materials structured during the Hercynian orogeny.

The massif presents a marked structural symmetry. Thus, the outermost zone (manifested by the South-Portuguese zone in Huelva) presents a lower degree of metamorphism since the deformation affected only the most superficial levels of the crust; On the other hand, the innermost zone (Ossa-Morena) presents a great degree of crustal deformation, since the most important metamorphic processes reached the lithospheric mantle.

Ossa-Morena area

Ossa-Morena is an area that in the province of Huelva is embedded by the Central-Iberian area, to the north, and by the South-Portuguese area to the south, occupying the northern third of the province.

It is characterized by great structural complexity and diversity of materials, ranging from the Precambrian to the Carboniferous, among which important volcanic and plutonic nodules are interspersed. The structural complexity is due to the important tectonic activity resulting from the Hercynian orogeny, which has configured an important network of fractures and shear zones that arrange the materials in the N0-SE configuration characteristic of the Hercynian zones. Another of the consequences is the metamorphism that manifests itself in different degrees, as well as by the intense deformations generating folding and, ultimately, thrusting.

In the province, two domains can be distinguished:

• Domain of Elvas-Greats:

This domain is located in the border strip with the province of Badajoz, predominantly in the Sierra de Cumbres Mayores. Rocks formed by regional metamorphism in the Precambrian predominate, highlighting metapelites and volcanosedimentary materials. These materials are arranged in lying folds, leading to significant thrusting.

• Dominio de Sierra Aracena:

This domain forms a strip to the south of the previous one, although much more extensive. It runs practically in an east-west direction between the province of Seville and Portugal (Almadén de la Plata-Beja).

Two different parts can be distinguished: one oceanic and the other continental. The first is formed by the Acebuches amphibolites and other metabasites that arose from regional basalt metamorphism. For its part, the continental part is much more heterogeneous, predominantly a metamorphism of high temperatures and low pressure.

South-Portuguese Zone

The South-Portuguese zone is the most extreme and southern part of the Massif Hesperico. It occupies a wide strip in the center of the province of Huelva, extending towards the neighboring province of Seville. It is in contact with the Ossa-Morena zone, with which it forms an important suture of the European Hercynian Massif, manifested by the Acebuches amphibolites.

The northern part is made up of Devonian materials, while in its central part is the Iberian Pyrite Belt, which forms a band 250 km long and 50 km wide. Its main characteristic is that it contains large deposits of pyrite and polymetallic sulfides: copper, lead and zinc.

Neogene and Quaternary depressions

Neogene and Quaternary deposits are part of the siltation area of the Betic Depression. Its geological origin is relatively recent, with a predominance of sedimentary materials -sand, silt and clay- from the Upper Miocene, Pliocene and, more locally, Pleistocene, product of the erosion of the new reliefs.

The oldest materials correspond to the Mio-Pliocene, located in the contact zone with the Andévalo (South-Portuguese Zone). These lands, composed mainly of sand and sandstone, sit directly on a powerful layer of marl, the base of the filling of the depression. Discontinuously, a subsequent sedimentation in the Pliocene of conglomerates, gravel, sand and clay is superimposed.

The fill materials are increasingly recent as you move south, where the Pliocene mixes and disappears under subsequent Quaternary sedimentation. The altitude descends towards the sea forming a true erosive glacis that comes to an end on the coast. This space is known as sand lands and is mainly made up of siliceous silt, gravel and sand that is not very cohesive.

The coastline is sandy, formed by dunes interrupted by the estuary of the Tinto and Odiel rivers, forming marshes.

Relief

Physical map of the province

In Huelva's relief, two zones can be clearly distinguished: the mountain zone dominated by the Huelva sector of Sierra Morena and the great coastal plain belonging to the Bética Depression. Between the two, there is a third transition zone, called the Andévalo, where the ridged reliefs that form part of the foothills of Sierra Morena predominate. These three zones are arranged in a north-south direction, the height descending in this direction.

The Costa de la Luz, shared with the neighboring province of Cádiz up to Tarifa, bathes the south of the province. There are no cliffs, being the dune formations the most characteristic element of the coastal relief. The beaches are of the dissipative type, of fine golden sand, with annual variations in the coastline that can be marked due to winter storms.

Sierra Morena

Sierra Morena and therefore the Huelva sector, is the result of the erosion of the Massif Hesperico formed in the Hercynian orogeny. The alpine folding produced a rejuvenation of the mountain range with the folding of the sedimentary materials and at the same time a fracture of the metamorphic materials, less flexible to orogenic forces. This different behavior of the materials has caused a great internal diversity within the area: the relief ranges from the most abrupt and steep areas, made up of hard materials, to hilly and medium-sloping areas, and valley areas where the erosion of soft materials has been older.

Mainly, the Huelva sector can be divided into two subsectors: in the north, several mountainous alignments with altitudes between 500 and 700 meters are arranged longitudinally, composed mainly of slates, sandstones, and greywackes, which form slightly abrupt ridged peaks. You can highlight the Sierra de los Hinojales, the Sierra del Álamo or the Sierra del Viento. To the south of this sector, divided by the valleys of the Múrtigas and Huelva rivers, is the southern subsector formed by alignments with different orientations. In this sector (in its central part) are the highest altitudes and slopes: the summit of Castaño stands out with 962 meters. The highest peak in the province is Mount Bonales with 1,054 meters above sea level. We must also highlight the visual value of the large granitic batholiths of Aroche and Santa Olalla.

The Andévalo

The Andévalo region presents a series of low-altitude mountain ranges, between 200 and 600 meters high, depending on their proximity to Sierra Morena. The materials have become metamorphic and have been fractured by the different orogenies. The rivers have taken advantage of these fractures and have finished off with their erosion the final modeling of this region, where tabular structures predominate, small low-lying hills. The intense metamorphism of this area has shaped the important mining area of the Iberian Pyrite Belt. Among the most important peaks are Cabezo Gordo (613 m), in Santa Bárbara, and Padre Caro (600 m) in the municipality of Nerva.

Location of the main beaches of the onubense coast

Marisma of the national park of Doñana in the estuary of Guadalquivir

The coast and the countryside

This sector is formed by a fairly monotonous monoclinal relief with some hills or ridges that interrupt the continuity of the plain. It owes its origin to the sedimentary clogging of the tectonic trench of the ancient Tethys Sea, with tertiary and quaternary materials from the erosion of Sierra Morena. The limit of this depression is formed by the fault of the Tinto River, which forms a kind of step with respect to the Andévalo. Within this sector, two perfectly differentiated subsectors can be distinguished:

The countryside is a sedimentary plain with gentle undulations, in contact with the Guadalquivir depression, formed by Tertiary and Quaternary materials, several zones can be distinguished: the interior depression, the interior plateau, the Tejada field, and the area of the alcores. The materials that form them are mainly sand, silt and clay, although blue marls, typical of marine sedimentation, also abound.

To the south of this zone, in contact with the marshes, there are other more recent and less cohesive materials formed mainly by sandstones that in many places emerge in the form of crusts. The marsh is the most recent and closest formation sector to the coast, where there are typical formations of marshes, pipes, lagoons, estuaries, along with areas of sand and dunes. It is made up mostly of very fine materials, normally clay, and exposed to both continental and maritime dynamics. These materials are not yet very consolidated.

Hydrography

Watersheds

Embalse de Campofrío

In the province of Huelva there are, from west to east, four important rivers: the Guadiana, the Odiel, the Tinto and the Guadalquivir. There are other smaller rivers such as the Carreras River and the Piedras River. The hydrographic network is characterized by having short-distance watercourses, as they are rivers that must overcome steep slopes and reach high speed and high erosive power, now diminished by human intervention in the creation of reservoirs.

The province of Huelva divides its territory between three hydrographic basins: the Guadiana Basin, the Atlantic-Andalusian Basin and the Guadalquivir Basin. The province is framed by the Guadiana and Guadalquivir rivers, being able to speak of a "Mesopotamia" since it is between both rivers.

The Junta de Andalucía assumed from January 1, 2006 full powers in the management of water and the public hydraulic domain in the entire Andalusian coast with the incorporation of the basins of the Tinto, Odiel, Piedras and Chanza rivers to the Autonomous Administration, together with the rivers Guadalete and Barbate (Cádiz).

The Tinto, Odiel, Piedras and Chanza basins, which comprise practically the entire province of Huelva and whose management previously depended on the Guadiana Hydrographic Confederation, were initially integrated into the Andalusian Water Agency as the General Directorate of the Andalusian Atlantic Basin. After the reorganization of the public sector carried out by the Junta de Andalucía in 2011, said agency disappeared, leaving the basin integrated into the General Directorate of Planning and Management of the D.P.H., of the Ministry of the Environment.

The Guadiana river serves as the province's border with Portugal, and all the streams located in the west of the province die there. One of the most important dams in the province is located in the Malagón and Cóbica streams, the Andévalo dam with an adjustable capacity of 117 hm³, which supplies water to the main provincial demands such as tourism and human consumption on the coast, the Industrial Pole of the Metropolitan area and intensive irrigated crops.

For its part, the Guadalquivir river flows between the provinces of Huelva and Cádiz and acts as a boundary between both provinces, although only for a few kilometres. However, it collects most of the water from the marshes (Doñana National Park), through the Rocina stream, and those from the northeast, through the Huelva stream.

However, the most important and emblematic rivers in Huelva, since they run all the way through the province, are the Tinto and the Odiel. The Tinto River, which rises in the eastern Andévalo mountains, is a dead river (if we except the organisms called extremophiles) due to the large amount of dissolved minerals that its waters carry, a product of the intense activity that took place in the Rio Tinto mining basin, located north of the County. This fact gives it an arid character, without vegetation on its margins. It supposes a natural limit between the agricultural lands of the County and the Andevaleñas of the north. Numerous streams and riverbanks flow towards it, highlighting the Corumbel River. Only Moguer and the northern area of the municipalities of Lucena del Puerto and Bonares are located in this basin.

The Odiel river is born in the Sierra de Aracena and flows out, together with the Tinto river, forming the Huelva estuary. Its basin has a length of 140 km of main course and an area of 2330 km². In the hydrographic network of the Odiel River, three main sub-basins can be distinguished: the Oraque River, the Meca River and the Odiel River. The first two provide 51% of the total contribution and that of the Odiel the remaining 49%. The fluvial character of the Odiel is lost in Gibraleón, from where a complex estuary is created that gives rise to the Odiel Marshes.

The Tinto River, characterized by its red waters due to the minerals of the piritic strip and the action of different microorganisms

Other rivers to highlight in the province are:

• Ribera del Chanza: runs towards NE-SO, opening a large valley, next to the river of Calaboza, until they die in the Guadiana. This valley allows the N-433 road to Portugal and the development of one of the few agricultural areas of Sierra Morena.
• River Múrtigas: it runs north towards the meeting with the Guadiana, opening itself between slate materials, difficultly eroding, and therefore excavating a narrow and embedded valley.
• Ribera de Huelva: Pass through a wide valley in Sierra Morena, which divides it into two sectors: north and south. It runs in NO-SO sense by collecting the waters of the river of Cala, until it flows into the Guadalquivir.

In the province of Huelva, we must highlight the importance of surface water linked to endorheic formations, especially the Guadalquivir marshes, protected by the Doñana National and Natural Park, which is located, to a large extent, in the province Huelva. In the surroundings of Doñana, the endorheic complex Lagunas de Matalagrana stands out.

Also noteworthy are the Abalario complex, between Lucena del Puerto and Moguer, and the Palos lagoon complex, which forms the natural area of the Palos and Las Madres lagoons, in the Palos de la Frontera and Moguer districts. Both spaces are very fragile and are under great pressure due to the growing demand for water extraction.

Regarding the subsoil waters, we must highlight the Almonte-Marisma detrital aquifer, formed by the filtration of the marsh waters, allowed by the existence of sand and sandstone on the surface and another impermeable layer of marls in depth blue.

The aquifer supplies 40% of the consumption produced in the Condado Water Association, in addition to all existing irrigation systems in the Condado and in the neighboring municipalities of Moguer and Palos de la Frontera.

Climate

To analyze the climate of Huelva, one must start from its geographical location. This province is between 38º15” and 36º45” latitude. Generally oriented at noon (south), zone of maximum solar exposure in the northern hemisphere. It has approximately 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, which is equivalent to stating that this province enjoys 300 clear days annually.

A decisive factor must be taken into account, such as its proximity to the Atlantic, whose influence is manifested in the oscillation between the average temperature of the maximum and the average of the minimum, in addition, the province has smooth topographies that increase towards the north, this factor also influencing temperatures (they decrease from south to north, as the altitude increases).

It generally has a mild winter, where temperatures are around 10 °C and very rarely drop below 0 °C, and a hot summer, whose warmest months, July and August, are dominated by temperatures of around 35 °C and are rarely observed above 40 °C. The maximum and minimum temperatures observed in the city of Huelva have been 43.8 °C on July 25, 2004 and -5.8 °C on February 17, 1938 respectively.

These characteristics define an oceanic Mediterranean climate or one with Atlantic influences, which can be divided into two zones: the sub-maritime Atlantic and the attenuated Continental.

On February 2, 1954, a very unusual phenomenon occurred on the Huelva coast, despite its proximity to the sea: due to an intense storm from the north, there was a snowfall that lasted about 3 hours and some 40 centimeters of snow. In some places in the cities of Huelva or Isla Cristina the snow did not melt until a week had passed. There has not been such a significant snowfall since 1881. This type of snowfall has an average return period of 50 years.

• In the submarine Atlantic subregion, in the lowlands of the protected valleys, summers are hot, while the highlands enjoy mild temperatures. In winter, continentality is noticeable as it moves towards the interior. Summers are hot in clear skies.
• The attenuated Continental subregion is characterized by the softness of its winters, where frosts occasionally occur. In summer the thermal contrast is high, being July the hottest month. In low Andévalo areas, belonging to the Chanza riverbank, Odiel tributaries, and the latter, temperatures easily exceed 40 °C in Summer, even 45 °C during heat waves. There is usually a remarkable contrast between the Andévalo and the coast.

As for rainfall, it is around 500 mm per year (in the inland mountainous area it can increase up to 1000 mm per year). The maximum rainfall is found at the end of autumn-winter, while in the summer season the rains are scarce, particularly July hardly registers rainfall.

Edaphology

The nature of the soils of Huelva is strongly conditioned by the materials and morphology of the Betic Depression and the Hesperian Massif. In this sense, and following the N-S direction, three large domains with soils with similar characteristics can be distinguished.

Sierra Morena

Sierra de Aracena

Depending on the lithology that outcrops on the surface and the existing morphology, Sierra Morena is characterized by a series of characteristic soils: Leptosols, Cambisols and Luvisols.

Lithic Leptosols develop over the extensive Carboniferous strip, above all over shales and conglomerates. The soils are scarcely developed due to the broken morphology of the territory. In areas of valleys or with minor slopes, cambisols can develop. In the slate zone, outside the Carboniferous, a similar phenomenon occurs. To the difficulty of altering this material and the slopes, we must add its schistosity, which facilitates the sliding of the soil formed by the slopes. In specific situations, chromic luvisols can develop. Another zone of development of these soils is the volcanic strip of acid materials that are difficult to alter which, together with the significant slopes, make it impossible to form soils with greater depth. In more privileged areas, Cambisols can develop.

Castaño with hedgehog, Aracena

Cambisols develop on more alterable lithologies such as basic lavas, developing more powerful soils. The wide granite area, close to the province of Seville, is also prone to the development of deep, very sandy soils.

Luvisols are located in the highest parts of Sierra Morena, where limestone materials predominate. From these soils, due to the humid conditions and the presence of chestnut trees, there has been a development of altered soils rich in iron and magnesium —with the characteristic reddish color— that can be included within the Cambisols.

The Huelva countryside

The Huelva countryside extends along a narrow strip that crosses the province from Portugal to the Sevillian countryside. Two areas can be distinguished: in the first, the materials are fundamentally marly, and the predominant soils are calcisols, vertisols and, more rarely, cambisols. To the south, where calcarenites dominate, are Calcisols, Cambisols, Regosols and Luvisols.

Within the vertisols, the albariza soils are very important, developed on a margolime substrate, yellowish-white in color and where the best vine yields are obtained in the Condado region. Its water retention capacity allows the strain to have resources during the dry summer season. We must also highlight the bugging in Condado-Campiña. They are sedimentary soils, typical of the central strip, known as bujeos but with different varieties. In general, all these soils are fertile and deep, rich in humus and easy to work, presenting four fertile soil horizons. They are ideal for agricultural development, which is why traditionally they have been intensely occupied by traditional agriculture (Mediterranean triad or trilogy of olive, vine and cereal).

Coast and marshes

To the south of the province there is a wide area of loosely cohesive sandy materials, which coincides with a morphology of almost zero slope. In this area there are two different spaces. Marsh areas with highly saline soils, where the soils are almost exclusively solonchacks.

On the other hand, in the sandy areas of the coast, the predominant soils are arenosols. This area is known as the land of Arenas Gordas, which make up a marginal space composed mainly of silt, gravel and siliceous sand. The agronomic quality is very poor, however, thanks to the development of forced crops under irrigated plastic, these lands have become a source of wealth for the cultivation of strawberries today.

Deeper soils such as Cambisols or Gleysols can be developed in areas where vegetation provides an important contribution of biomass for the formation of humus.

Flora and fauna

Alcornoque en Aracena

Narcis

The type of vegetation characteristic of the area is that of the Mediterranean sclerophyllous forest, where holm and cork oaks predominate. This type of vegetation appears practically continuously throughout the Huelva geography, above all in the northern half (Sierra Morena and El Andévalo). This vegetation is linked to areas with acid soils and where there is no drought, although they are not very demanding in terms of the water they need for their development.

The chestnut groves and gall oaks are also typical forest forms of these mountainous areas of Huelva, however, their water requirements are more demanding. This is why they appear in the form of spots in the highest areas (with greater rainfall) or in shady areas (with less evapotranspiration). Among its undergrowth, species such as the durillo, the butcher's broom, the olivilla, the crazy broom, the long aristoloquia and the common fern stand out. On the other hand, in the countryside area, natural vegetation is practically non-existent, and the soil is practically used for cultivation.

Regarding the vegetation associated with the coastal and marsh areas, species such as the Vulpia fontquerana, the Linaria tursica , the coastal juniper, the Micropyropsis tuberosa, the Hydrocharis morsus ranae or the Thorella verticillatinundata, many of which are highly threatened. The harshness of this ecosystem is evident in the need for some plant species to adapt to very special conditions: sand dunes and their inconsistent soil. This ecosystem of mobile dunes, almost non-existent in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula, is a consequence of the strong south-west wind. The burial of vegetation, especially trees caused by the slow movement of sand, is one of the best known phenomena in the Doñana beach area.

On the other hand, the repopulation vegetation deserves a separate mention in this province, where the repopulations of eucalyptus and pine trees have been of great importance, so much so that their felling contributes to the total Andalusian practically 50% of the volume of wood (504,911 m³, of which 373,429 m³ are eucalyptus). in soil degradation and a decrease in biodiversity in lagoon areas of high ecological value.

Iberian lynx, one of the protected species of Doñana

Regarding fauna, the natural conditions of Sierra Morena and El Andévalo are ideal for the existence of a wealth of species of reptiles, birds and, in many cases, of species with a very limited distribution.

In this situation of extinction risk there are such emblematic species as the Iberian lynx (Linx pardina), golden eagle, imperial eagle, Bonelli's eagle, black vulture, as well as other birds of prey, such as the black stork and bat colonies. The existence of these species in the Huelva geography is a first order environmental indicator, it highlights the good ecological conditions in which these spaces are still found, however, it must be remembered that until only fifteen years ago there were lynx specimens in the other end of the province, in the natural setting of the Marismas de Isla Cristina, a terrible example of the path taken by our natural spaces. To this we must add other species of birds that, without actually having their nesting place in the province, spend periods in their natural spaces, either to rest during migratory routes or to spend their breeding season there.

Lastly, it is interesting the presence of autochthonous equine breeds such as the marsh horse, a semi-wild variety located in Doñana, and the retuerta horse, from the Doñana Biological Reserve, which is the oldest equine breed in Europe.

Spaces of environmental interest: RENPA

Map of spaces protected by RENPA in the province of Huelva

The Network of Protected Natural Spaces of Andalusia (RENPA) is configured as an integrated and unitary system of all the natural spaces located in the territory of Andalusia. The province of Huelva is made up of 23 protected areas including National Parks (1), Natural Parks (2), Peri-Urban Parks (2), Natural Areas (8), Protected Landscapes (1), Natural Monuments (5), Natural Reserves (3) and Concerted Nature Reserves (1), in which the most representative ecosystems of Huelva territory are found. With these figures, comprised of 302,823 ha, 30% of the territory of the province of Huelva is protected by one of them.

Marismas de Isla Cristina

Among these spaces, the most important protected ecosystem is the Doñana National Park, the largest ecological reserve in Europe, declared by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. It is located in the marshes of the Guadalquivir and is almost entirely in Huelva territory, shared with the provinces of Seville and Cádiz.

In the first foothills of Sierra Morena, already on the border with the province of Badajoz, stands out above all the Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche Natural Park, declared as such in 1989. The area has an extremely important wealth of meadow landscapes, holm oaks and cork oaks, chestnut forests and riverside forests, which has promoted the breeding of the Iberian pig and the manufacture of products from it for centuries. Of enormous geological and scenic interest is the Gruta de las maravillas de Aracena, of great dimensions and beauty, drilled into the limestone substrata of this mountain range, being one of the largest in the Iberian Peninsula, with its 2130 meters in length.

Arrow of El Rompido, Lepe

Other protection zones in the province, in addition to the aforementioned Sierra de Aracena and Aroche and Doñana peaks, are:

Biosphere Reserves

The figure of Biosphere Reserve is granted to spaces that have a natural and cultural wealth representative of the different ecosystems of the globe. Andalusia has a Network of Biosphere Reserves, of which the province of Huelva contains those listed in the following table. In total, the province has spaces with an area of 234,092 ha, which represents 22% of the Andalusian total.

Wetlands

Ramsar Sites of the province

Andalusia has the richest, most varied and best preserved natural heritage of wetlands in Spain and in the European Union. The Andalusian wetlands in general, where those of Huelva are framed, present a great diversity of ecological types, constituting a type of ecosystem of very high environmental, economic, cultural and social value, which is why it is not only necessary to preserve and manage rational and sustainable, but it is convenient to emphasize that the geomorphological, biochemical and ecological processes or functions that take place in these ecosystems generate important goods and services to society. Based on the Ramsar Convention, a list of wetlands that meet any of the Criteria of International Importance has been drawn up, which are included in the following table:

LICs de la Red Natura 2000

Natura 2000 Network

Natura 2000 is a European ecological network of biodiversity conservation areas. It consists of Special Conservation Areas (ZEC) designated in accordance with the Habitats Directive, as well as Special Protection Areas for Birds (ZEPA) established by virtue of the Directive Birds. In the province of Huelva there are a total of 33 ZECs, which extend over 463,906.16 ha. Of which 8 are also ZEPAs, occupying a total of 324,147.17 ha.

Polluting industries

According to the Sustainability Observatory, pollution in Huelva has various causes, as it is due to emissions from Natural Gas, oil companies, cement companies, thermal power plants, fertilizers (Fertiberia), and other chemical industries such as Tioxide.

Territorial organization

Municipal Terms and Judicial Parties of the Province

In the territorial organization of the province, a distinction is made between the regional level, the municipal level and the local and singular entities.

There is no official regionalization in Huelva of an administrative nature. In the different sectoral policies an ad hoc regionalization has been carried out. In this way, there are some judicial regions (judicial districts), tourism, agriculture, health, among others, used for the planning and management of public facilities. Among them, the one with the greatest historical tradition is the judicial region, which divides the province into six judicial districts, whose heads are Aracena, Ayamonte, Huelva, Moguer, La Palma del Condado and Valverde del Camino. The only official body with administrative prerogatives are the associations of municipalities. The province has 18 associations that manage aspects of mutual interest such as tourism, water supply, landfills, among others.

As for the local level, the province is divided into 80 municipalities, politically organized around the town hall. Municipalities may be composed of several population entities. These nuclei can be instituted as Entidad de Ámbito Territorial Inferior al Municipio (EATIM). In the province, La Redondela (in Isla Cristina), and Tharsis (in Alosno) are constituted as EATIM and are organized around a neighborhood council.

In addition to the local entities mentioned, Huelva integrates a total of 227 singular entities. The municipality with the largest number of singular entities is Almonaster la Real, with 17, followed by Gibraleón with 11 and the 9 singular entities of Ayamonte and Isla Christina.

Government and provincial administration

The provinces are Regional Administrative Entities, lower than the autonomous community, determined by the grouping of municipalities, with their own legal personality and full capacity to comply with the guarantee of the principles of inter-municipal solidarity and balance, within the framework of the economic and social policy.

The Government and the autonomous administration of the Province correspond to the Provincial Council.

History of the Provincial Council of Huelva

Provincial Council Headquarters, Avenida Martín Alonso Pinzón, Huelva

Until the creation of the Provincial Councils, the provincial administration was basically an oversight instrument, but through article 335 of the Constitution of Cádiz (1812) the Provincial Councils were endowed with a series of perks such as the distribution of contributions, surveillance of violations of the Constitution, the provincial census and statistics, the establishment of constitutional Town Halls, etc. In front of it was a Superior Chief, appointed by the King. This new position, which he also held as a Government Delegate, assumed the powers of public order and executive power and served as a link between the Town Halls and the Provincial Council. However, after fourteen months of existence, Fernando VII put an end to the work of Las Cortes declaring the Constitution null and void.

During the absolutist six-year term of Fernando VII (1814-1820), the liberal reformist current came to a standstill, turning to the conservatism of the old regime. After this period, during the Liberal Triennium (1820-1823), the provincial question reappeared. The Law for the economic-political Government of the Provinces considers the Provincial Councils as the General Council of the Province.

One of the Provincial Councils is that of Huelva, in operation since July 7, 1822. Its life was short, since the fall of the Liberal Regime meant that there was hardly any practical application and that its capitular acts were destroyed by the reaction.

The death of Ferdinand VII in 1830 was the definitive impetus for the provincial issue. In 1833 Minister Javier de Burgos, by means of the Royal Decree of November 30, 1833, definitively culminated the process of provincial division, making Huelva one of them, made up of 75 municipalities and with Huelva as its capital. Finally, the Provincial Councils will be reorganized by a Royal Decree of December 25, 1835. The Provincial Council of Huelva will be established on November 16, 1835. The judicial districts of: Aracena, Ayamonte, El Cerro, La Palma del Condado, Huelva and Moguer.

The first superior chief of the province of Huelva was José Huet. Among the presidents with a shorter term are Alonso del Castillo and Jaime Madruga. The short mandate of the former was essential, as it saved La Rábida from being auctioned off in the midst of the Confiscation of 1855. The longest-lasting president has been Francisco Zorrero, in the midst of the Franco regime. He spent two decades in the Provincial Palace.

At the height of the Transition, Felipe Martínez de Acuña would arrive and, already in democracy, Jaime Madruga and Emiliano Sanz from Unión de Centro Democrático, and Manuel Eugenio Romero, Domingo Prieto, José Cejudo and the current president Petronila Guerrero, all from the Socialist Party.

Population

Huelva is the least populated Andalusian province, with 528,763 inhabitants (INE 2022), contributing just over 5% of the total for the autonomous community. It is the second least densely populated after Jaén, its meager 52.20 inhab/km², contrast with the average of 94.95 inhab/km² in the Community and the 92.46 inhab/km² in Spain. Most of this population is concentrated on the coastline, and fundamentally between the Portuguese border and the Metropolitan Region, while Sierra Morena and Western Andévalo are, with the exception of the area occupied by Doñana, the least densely populated areas.

Comarcal Map

The province covers an area of 10,128 km². Among the coastal regions there are some 425,000 inhabitants (more than 80% provincial), of which some 235,000 correspond to the Metropolitan Region. The capital is the most populous municipality, with 144,258 inhabitants. In addition to the capital, only Isla Cristina and Lepe reach 20,000 inhabitants in their main nucleus, while Aljaraque, Almonte, Ayamonte and Moguer exceed that figure only thanks to their tourist centers.

Distribution

The urban population, understood as such, that which lives in municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, represents 72.17% of the population in the province of Huelva. These municipalities are the first 14 that can be seen in the table of most populated municipalities in the province.

No. Municipality Population (2022) 1. a Huelva (Capital) 141.854 2. a Lepe 28.617 3. a Almonte 25.448 4. a Moguer 22.643 5. a Aljaraque 22.078 6. a Ayamonte 21.725 7. a Isla Cristina 21.523 8. a Cartaya 20.717 9. a Punta Umbría 16.167 10. a Bollullos Par del Condado 14.293 11. a Gibraleón 12.930 12. a Valverde del Camino 12.721 13. a Palos de la Frontera 12.483 14. a La Palma del Condado 10.770 15. a San Juan del Puerto 9.532 16. a Aracena 8.240 17. a Trigueros 7.926 18. a County spray 7.866 19. a Bonares 6.093 20. a Nerva 5.100 21. a Cortegana 4.636 22. a Beas 4.465 23. a Niebla 4.196 24. a Hinojos 3.951 25. a Alosno 3.940 26. a San Bartolomé de la Torre 3.906 27. a Mines of Riotinto 3.738

No. Municipality Population (2022) 28. a Field Pater 3.478 29. a Villalba del Alcor 3.316 30. a Lucena del Puerto 3.213 31. a Puebla de Guzmán 3.092 32. a Zalamea the Real 3.026 33. a Aroche 3.024 34. a Villablanca 2.945 35. a Villanueva de los Castillejos 2.923 36. a Calañas 2.734 37. a Field scene 2.288 38. a The Cerro de Andévalo 2.286 39. a Jabugo 2.243 40. a Chucena 2.229 41. a Villarrasa 2.190 42. a Manzanilla 2.119 43. a Santa Olalla del Cala 2.028 44. a The Campillo 2.018 45. a Almonaster la Real 1.785 46. a Major Summits 1.737 47. a Rosal de la Frontera 1.698 48. a Galaroza 1.373 49. a Higuera of the Sierra 1.320 50. a Encinasola 1.275 51. a La Zarza-Perrunal 1.230 52. a Cala 1.155 53. a Paymogo 1.124 54. a Santa Barbara de Casa 1.075

No. Municipality Population (2022) 55. a Arroyomolinos de León 951 56. a The Almendro 848 57. a Alar 802 58. a Sources 778 59. a Zufre 774 60. a Campofrío 742 61. a Blonde heads 705 62. a San Silvestre de Guzmán 659 63. a Courtconception 561 64. a The Grandpa 507 65. a Santa Ana la Real 473 66. a The Marines 410 67. a Sanlúcar de Guadiana 402 68. a Cañaveral de León 393 69. a San Bartolomé Summits 377 70. a Villanueva de las Cruces 377 71. a Hinojales 335 72. a Berrocal 302 73. a Courtlazor 302 74. a Puerto Moral 281 75. a Linares de la Sierra 276 76. a The Granada of Rio-Tinto 254 77. a The Nava 247 78. a Valdelarco 239 79. a Castaño del Robledo 277 80. a Media Summits 59

The province of Huelva is the 30th in Spain in which there is a higher percentage of inhabitants concentrated in its capital (28.24%, compared to 31.96% for the whole of Spain).

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  Density by municipality (2021)

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  Population by municipality (2021)

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  Population change from 2001 to 2011

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  Variation of population between 2011 and 2021

Migratory movements

Municipal map of immigrants in the province of Huelva in 2007

Nucleos of population of the province of Huelva

In the last third of the XIX century, with the purchase by foreign companies of the mines in the mining basin de Huelva, Berrocal, Campofrío, El Campillo, Minas de Riotinto, Minas de Tharsis, Nerva and Zalamea la Real, there was a migration of population from the province to that economically emerging area and immigration from the adjacent provinces of Extremadura and Seville, fundamentally, and even from the Portuguese Algarve, producing a significant demographic growth in that area.

The next process of immigration to the province occurred in the 1960s with the establishment of the Development Pole in the city of Huelva. This industry brought qualified labor mainly from northern Spain, although during its construction it provided temporary employment to many sectors and, after its implementation and consolidation, has generated a lot of indirect employment that, ultimately, has contributed to the city having doubled its population between 1960 and the end of the growth period of the city, at the end of the 1980s. From 1990 to 2007 the increase in population can only be explained by natural growth, since immigration and emigration movements are practically canceled, yielding growth figures of only 0.2% per year.

Finally, the last migratory process began in the nineties due to the effect of extensive agriculture and its implementation in strawberry and orange crops, and others to a lesser extent. In almost all of the Tierra Llana (Almonte, Moguer, Palos de la Frontera, Cartaya, Isla Cristina, Lepe) there are very important population growths, these being the municipalities that have carried the weight of the population growth of the province in the last decade. This need for labor, in a sector that needs it unskilled, brought immigration in the first place both from the neighboring province of Cádiz and from North Africa and later from Eastern European countries, where entry agreements are made and exit, so it does not effectively imply a relevant and permanent migratory movement of this population.

Separate mention deserves the population growth of Aljaraque and Punta Umbría, favored by the proximity to Huelva and becoming "dormitory cities", going to swell these municipalities almost all the growth of the metropolitan area.

Population developments from 1900 to 2001

Evolution of vegetative growth (birth - mortality) in the province of Huelva

Evolution

According to the Statistics Institute of Andalusia, the demographic evolution is as follows:

Graphic of demographic evolution in the province of Huelva between 1997 and 2020

Source: Spanish National Statistical Institute - Graphical development by Wikipedia.

Infrastructures and equipment

Transport and communications

Map of communications from the province of Huelva

International bridge over the Guadiana River

The situation of relative isolation of the province is due to a series of factors such as: the border with Portugal along the entire western part, the natural barrier that Sierra Morena represents for transit to Extremadura, as well as Doñana with the province of Cádiz and its eccentric situation in Spain.

Traditionally there were two passes to Portugal, one in Ayamonte by boat across the Guadiana River (to nearby Vila Real de Santo António) and another by road in Rosal de la Frontera, in one of the least densely populated areas of the province. With the entry of both countries into the EEC (1986) and especially from 1992, the formalities first and then the communications to reach Portugal improved ostensibly, especially as a result of the joint construction of the Guadiana International Bridge that, from Ayamonte, connects Spain with Portugal and recently with the Bajo Guadiana International Bridge to the north of the province. Although road communications with Seville also improved in 1991 with the opening of the Quincentennial Highway -belonging to the European Highway Network and later, in 2002, it was extended to Portugal.

The same did not happen with those linking the province with Badajoz (with a road that has not yet been doubled) or the controversial proposal for a land connection with Cádiz -which currently implies the forced passage through the SE-30 in Seville- turning both provinces in the only ones on the peninsula without direct communication by road. The difficulty of making economic development compatible with the preservation of the integrity of the ecosystem that Doñana houses is reflected in the controversy regarding this road connection proposal, since although voices are raised claiming it as an element that promotes greater economic development, The alteration that this would presumably entail for the biotic and abiotic conditions of the ecosystem makes it a highly controversial topic.

Public road transport is offered by a private company integrated into a transport consortium.

Regarding communications by train, these follow a similar trend. The traditional communication with Zafra has lost part of its demand in recent decades, as happened with the disappeared Huelva-Cuenca Minera connection for mineral trains. As there is no connection with Cádiz either, the connection from Huelva to Seville and Madrid subsists, with local institutions demanding the expansion of trains and the arrival of the AVE train. The link with the western part of the province also disappeared in 1987.

There is a project to create a public or private airport for the province promoted by entities such as the Provincial Council or the Chamber of Commerce. Currently the closest airports to the province are:

• Seville Airport (Spain), 113 km from the capital and about 50 km from the province.
• Faro Airport (Portugal), 112 km from the capital and 54 km from the border with the province.

Education

Faculty of Merced

The province has been characterized by helping the expansion of some pedagogical movements such as those resulting from the ideas formulated by Manuel Siurot, born in Palma del Condado and founder of various centers.

Regulated training is given in the different public schools for Early Childhood Education, Primary Education, Secondary Education and higher education, which are dependent on the Education Council of the Junta de Andalucía. Added to this is the presence of private religious schools and some secular ones. The University of Huelva is located in three different areas of the capital: the old hospital of La Merced and Cantero Cuadrado in the downtown area and the modern Campus Universitario del Carmen, at the entrance to the city and axis of the new expansion of the institution. To this is added the Campus of La Rábida, outside the city that gives it its name. Its origin dates from the Andalusian educational reform of the 1990s, by which new universities were created to have at least one public university per province, in which it was segregated from the University of Seville on July 1, 1993. Its first rector was Ramírez de Verger, the second Francisco José Martínez López, later Francisco Ruiz Muñoz and, currently, Antonia Peña Guerrero. In this public institution - dependent on the Junta de Andalucía - 30 degrees are offered in the 2010/11 academic year.

In addition to the University of Huelva, there is a branch of the International University of Andalusia located in La Rábida and which teaches Official Postgraduate Programs, doctorates, masters and courses related to the Ibero-American world, Summer Courses, as well as the Andalusian Center for Ibero-American Studies.

Already outside of university education, Level II of Survival at Sea is taught in the town of Isla Cristina. This is offered at the facilities of the Social Institute of the Navy in the industrial port and provides advanced training for management of maritime risks in the only center of these characteristics in Andalusia and one of the few in Spain.

Health

The capital is home to most of the health structure of the province with five hospitals, three of which are public, included within the Juan Ramón Jiménez Hospital Area and dependent on the Andalusian Health Service. The Juan Ramón Jiménez General Hospital serves the population of the urban nucleus and other nearby towns, the Vázquez Díaz Hospital is of different specialties and the Infanta Elena Regional Hospital, which serves the population of different towns in the province. There is also a private hospital, the Hospital Blanca Paloma, and several private clinics. Dependent on the University of Huelva, there is a faculty of nursing.

In the Comarca de la Sierra is the Hospital Comarcal de Riotinto, which cares for the population in the north of the province. Everything is completed with 56 health centers and clinics spread across different towns, districts and neighborhoods of the capital.

Economy

Old capital stock market, one of the direct selling points of the products of the province

The province of Huelva is the second Andalusian province, after Almería, in terms of gross domestic product per capita. The provincial GDP is 8,415 million euros, which represents 6.7% of the total GDP of Andalusia (provisional data from the INE for the year 2005). GDP growth in 2005 was 10.4% and income per capita reached €17,600.

The province of Huelva is one of those with the largest primary resources in Spain, which has allowed the province to serve as a food pantry for the nation during difficult times in recent history, such is the case of the transportation of boots of sardines from Isla Cristina to Castilla by train and to the Castilian-Leonese by truck, both during the civil war and in other moments of need, even considering the construction in Isla Cristina of railway branches next to the salting factories, in the way that in Jerez it was made with the fino wineries.

The traditional economic resources of the province are mining, with exploitations dating from the Bronze Age, and fishing, thanks to the fishing grounds of the Gulf of Cádiz, today almost exhausted. Agriculture is of relatively modern development, although the viticulture and citrus dates back a long time. Today the cultivation of strawberries contributes as a substantial part of the provincial productivity. Industry, with the Development Pole and the service sector are the primary sources of employment and wealth currently and since the last third of the century XX. It is also worth mentioning the manufacture of footwear and the manufacture of furniture that occur in the town of Valverde del Camino. To all this we can add the significant boom in tourism, both on the coast and inland, in recent years.

Aerogenerators in Tharsis

As in the rest of Spain, the service sector is the sector with the greatest weight in Huelva's economy, both in terms of GDP and employed workers. A particularity of the province is the great importance of industry and the energy sector: between them they represent 21% of GDP while the Andalusian average is 13%.

Economic indicators

The level of unemployment is lower than the national average, registering the highest rates in the mountains. Taking into account that up to 5 or 6% unemployment is considered full employment, there are only 7 municipalities that exceed 6% male unemployment (all in the northern part of the province: Jabugo, Almonaster la Real, Villalba del Alcor, Galaroza, Nerva, El Campillo and Cumbres Mayores) and yet there are 20 taking into account female unemployment (the above and others except Villalba del Alcor, which has anecdotal female unemployment, breaking the norm). It is only worrying in the municipalities of Arroyomolinos de León, Jabugo, Nerva and Valverde del Camino, where female unemployment ranges from 15.1 to 12.4% respectively. At the opposite extreme are, with the lowest provincial male unemployment (situated between 2 and 3%) Hinojos, Villablanca and Arroyomolinos de León, and with female unemployment below 2% are Lucena del Puerto, Bonares, Santa Bárbara de Casa and Rociana del Condado. The provincial average is around 4.7% male and 6.3% female, below the national average in any case.

The provincial economic activity index is somewhat lower than the national average per inhabitant (Spain = 100,000) with an index of 745 concentrated mainly in Huelva and Palos de la Frontera, with almost 400 between both municipalities, being Palos de la Border the most dynamic. The provincial market share is located (general index Spain = 100,000) at 1008. The most dynamic municipalities in this sector is the capital itself, with an index of 306 (almost a third of the provincial total), followed by Lepe, Almonte, Ayamonte, Moguer, Isla Cristina, Cartaya and Punta Umbría, to name the indices above 30. Among all of these they add up to an index of 566.

There are 384 cars per 1,000 inhabitants in the province (450 the national average) and 96 per 1,000 trucks or vans (103 in Spain). The municipalities with the most registered towing vehicles are Niebla (186) and Huelva (466), highlighting the importance of this work instrument for the local economy of Niebla.

Primary sector

Fishing

Isla Cristina. Muelle Martínez Catena and one of the Lonja buildings in front of the pier

The fishing industry is essential to the provincial economy and has been the traditional way of life for generations. The situation of the coastal strip of the province, close to old fishing grounds, has led to the development of different fishing ports, making it possible for the province's fleet to be one of the largest in Spain. The ports of the western coast stand out: Ayamonte, Isla Cristina and Punta Umbría mainly. Other historic ports are El Terrón in Lepe, Huelva, Mazagón, Sanlúcar de Guadiana or El Rompido in Cartaya. Isla Cristina (one of the first two Spanish ports in terms of tonnage, number of vessels and value of catches and the first port in volume of fresh fish auctioned in Andalusia) although Ayamonte also has important canning and salting companies. The Isla Cristina market, one of the engines of provincial wealth, serves the fleets of Isla Cristina, Lepe and Punta del Moral. In 2005, approximately 1,411,403 kilos of merchandise per month entered the markets of the ports of the province (more than 50% landed in the port of Isla Cristina), which represented an income of more than three and a half million euros. a month. Fish (886,806 kilos per month), molluscs (493,833 kilos per month) and crustaceans (30,763 per month) continue to form part of the work activity of many families on the coast. The golden age of fishing in the province is between the second half of the XIX century and the first third of the XX. Some towns were born no more than 300 years ago only as fishing ports (Punta del Moral, La Antilla or Isla Cristina). The only towns with their own town hall and directly on the sea are Isla Cristina (founded in 1755) and Punta Umbría (segregated from Cartaya in 1963). This is due to the progress that the coast has experienced during the past centuries, which made it necessary to create new ports such as Isla Cristina. Punta Umbría has its origin, rather than in the boom in fishing, in that of tourism (it will be seen in the tertiary sector).

The general summarized data of the province corresponding to the species with the most catches are the following:

The importance of the ports and the demand for fishing from the Huelva ports reaches the extreme that certain species are landed here only for the added value generated by obtaining the designation of origin, as is the case of the white shrimp of Huelva, of which Isla Cristina and Punta Umbría are its greatest supporters.

There are fishing exhibitions and congresses that are usually held in June and October, at the Isla Cristina exhibition center (FIMAR, International Sea Fair, and FAMAR, Andalusian Sea Fair), among others. The international fishing industry event Cluster of Fishing Companies in Third Countries was also held in this city in March 2008 with more than 30 international delegations and 220 member companies. On the other hand, there are several seafood fairs in summer as a tourist attraction in several coastal municipalities, mainly Isla Cristina and Punta Umbría.

The most important company in the sector is Lonja de Isla SA, with significant economic activity in the municipality of Isla Cristina itself, in Ayamonte, Lepe and, through subsidiary companies, in Huelva. This company manages around 18 million kilos of annual catches.

It is also important, insofar as it allows sustaining Huelva's gastronomy, the so-called "shellfish gathering", the star being the shellfish gathering of bivalves, a source of livelihood for more than a hundred families on the coast.

Agriculture

Collection of citrus

The agriculture of this province has been able to adapt to the new demands with the inclusion of new forms of crops. At the end of the 1960s, the businessman Antonio Medina Lama carried out the first strawberry cultivation experiences in the province, revolutionizing the incipient strawberry cultivation that had been carried out. The first experiments in growing strawberries with modern intensive techniques were carried out on the Las Madres farm, in the municipality of Moguer, near Mazagón beach and a few kilometers from Palos de la Frontera, quickly spreading to the rest of the province. Currently, the province represents 97% of the national production of strawberries and is the second largest producer in the world after the United States. Moguer stands out with a cultivated area of 2,278 ha (8,551 ha in all of Spain), which represents 27% of the national total, which places the town in first place in Spain in terms of area dedicated to the cultivation of this fruit.

The towns of Cartaya, Isla Cristina and Lepe also stand out in the irrigable area of the Chanza river and others such as Almonte, Lucena del Puerto and Palos de la Frontera, all dedicated to the production, handling, packaging and marketing of the so-called red gold, being in Palos de la Frontera the cooperative with the world's largest production of this fruit. Practically half of the strawberry crop produced is sold to France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and the volume sold in the national, Swiss and international markets is also significant. Italian. It has also had a strong social impact in the province, since a large amount of foreign labor has been necessary for its cultivation, which has enabled an increase in immigration, similar to what happened in the province of Almería. In recent years, the intensive cultivation of raspberries, blueberries, citrus fruits (of greater tradition on the coast, such as oranges) and irrigated olive groves have also increased considerably.

However, the development of intensive irrigated agriculture has its counterpoint from an environmental perspective. In this way, the Almonte-Marisma aquifer is depleting due to the pressure exerted by irrigated crops in the vicinity of the Doñana National Park.

The traditional crops are mainly cereals, olive groves, rainfed citrus and fig trees in Isla Cristina and Ayamonte. Likewise, the extensions dedicated to integrated agriculture and ecological agriculture in the province are important, being the first province of the community in the total area registered, with 123,125 ha in 2008 (all types of crops are included, including forests), the greater than Andalusia. The production of wines and vinegars in the Condado area, under the Condado de Huelva Denomination of Origin, has also experienced a high growth, even producing sparkling and red wines, something unusual in southern Spain.

Livestock

The Sierra de Aracena has achieved the boom of its economy thanks, to a certain extent, to products from Iberian pigs such as Jamón de Huelva (formerly Jabugo ham), with the Jamón de Huelva Denomination of Origin, which is no longer It is sold only within the country, but it is exported to other European Union countries such as France and Italy, also working on business strategies to establish itself in Asia and the United States. The sale of other derivatives and meat is also experiencing a major push. There are 639 livestock farms in the province, which represents 37% of the regional total.

Mining

Open-air mining exploitation of Corta Atalaya, Riotinto, in the 1980s

The mining basin was one of the first in copper extraction in the world and is currently booming. The mining resources of the northern part of the province have been exploited for millennia, since the immense Iberian Pyrite Strip is located in the area. Thus, exploited from the year 1000 a. of C., different peoples have prospered and have become rich with the entrails of this land. But it was from the end of the XIX century, with the purchase of the mines by different Anglo-Saxon private awardees, when it came to a golden age of these farms. The development of the Mining Basin and of the city of Huelva itself was undeniable, although part of the capital arising from mining has left these lands. In the 1950s the mines returned to Spanish hands, with national companies being created for their exploitation. The fall in the price of copper at the end of the XX century led to the closure of most of them. At the end of the last decade the price of metals increased due to the growing demand from countries like China or India, this guarantees the reactivation of numerous mines in the Iberian Pyrite Belt.

On the other hand, the intensity of work in the mines has caused various ecological problems in recent times, since the protests over the teleras at the end of the century XIX until the Aznalcóllar disaster in 1998, when a flood of toxic sludge from a mine belonging to the Boliden-Apirsa company in the nearby province of Seville affected the Guadiamar river and part of the waters of the Donana.

Several mines are currently in operation, and many others are being studied or planned:

Secondary sector: transformation industries

Ría de Huelva (Punta del Sebo) where the impact of industrial facilities is observed

In Huelva, one of the oldest riverside shipyards in Spain is still active. This is the Isla Cristina riverside shipyard, where the replicas of the Victoria and the caravel La Pinta were built on the occasion of the V centenary of the discovery of America. This is one of the few traditional industries that remain in the province along with textiles. Also notable is the private company Astilleros de Huelva, in the capital, dedicated to the construction of modern ships. Being a medium-sized shipyard, the crisis in the naval sector does not affect it as much, since it does not need large projects to maintain itself. Among his tenders, the curiosity of having built the pleasure boats for the Expo '92 in Seville stands out.

In the town of Valverde del Camino, the aforementioned textile industry has managed to add value to its production in the manufacture of footwear. The manufacture of wooden furniture also survives in this area and in the Sierra. The artisan manufacture of footwear began its development thanks to the English presence and native businessmen who innovated in their manufacture, adapting to the modern market. It had its moment of splendor around the 1960s, when its flagship product, the boto campero began to be known throughout Spain. Currently, its market is all of Spain, a large part of Europe and countries such as China, Japan or the United States.

Another image of the Chemical Pole in Huelva and Palos de la Frontera

But the greatest activity in this sector is concentrated in the so-called Huelva Development Pole or chemical pole. Although it arose in the 1960s, the first intention to install an important industrial complex in the area arose in 1870, by José Monasterio Correa, but it was not until 1964 when the Franco Government approved (Decree of June 30, 1964) the construction of an Industrial Promotion Center that would change the geography, population and politics of the area. Its installation in the area was due (among other aspects) to the high degree of underdevelopment and unemployment existing in the area at that time, and the need to take advantage of the huge and nearby mining production, making it possible for it to work and remain in the country. The installation of industrial estates was carried out in various Spanish provinces, however in those years only in León and Huelva was sufficient support achieved for the industrial development of the estates to be effective. The Huelva development pole was the most important developed at the time, let us remember that since the absence of heavy industry, which currently continues to exceed production records, although it is not in the traditional areas that house the weight of the industry in Spain and where the port as a communications and transport node, and the mountains as a source of certain raw materials, have made it one of the most important in Spain and the largest source of employment in the metropolitan region, with more than 14,000 jobs. jobs located in just a couple of municipalities (which employ as many workers from several neighboring municipalities). Since then, the capital and nearby towns have been linked to the chemical industry (oil refineries, natural gas or thermal power plants).

Outside port of the pole

For this reason, the development of Huelva is undeniable, but so are the serious associated diseases and the significant ecological setback in the Huelva or Tinto estuary due to its proximity to the large phosphogypsum ponds. The Chemical Pole tends to divide citizens between those who see it as the economic engine of the province and those who see it as their first problem, since it affects their health or destroys the surrounding ecosystems.

Currently, the Pole, with more than 1,500 hectares, is home to 16 companies (grouped under the name of AIQB) with a workforce of more than 6,000 workers. The companies are: Air Liquide, Algry, Aragonesas, Atlantic Copper, Cepsa, Enagás, Endesa, Ence, Ertisa, Fertiberia, FMC Foret, Repsol YPF, Unión Fenosa, Huntsman Tioxide. As a result of Fertiberia's activities, and to a lesser extent As measured by FMC Foret, another 1,200 ha are indirectly occupied by the Chemical Pole: they are the phosphogypsum ponds, which are located about 300 meters from the Pérez Cubillas neighborhood in Huelva, one kilometer from the urban center of the capital. According to some opinions, these rafts could be emitting radiation several times above what is allowed. as in the health of the people of Huelva. Said platform has unsuccessfully made several claims both to town halls and to different public institutions.

The main industrial activities and the most representative municipalities in each branch are shown below. Likewise, the indices that are given for each activity with respect to the provincial and national level are indicated. In the absence of national data, Spain = 100,000 is taken. The indices are obtained from the La Caixa Statistical Yearbook where the methodology used for their preparation can be seen.

The beach of Matalascañas has for years hosted the vast majority of national tourism that visited the province.^{[chuckles]required]} Since the beginning of the centuryXXI this began to diversify

• Industry in general: Huelva, Valverde del Camino, Bollullos Par del Condado, Almonte, Moguer, Palos de la Frontera, Isla Cristina and Lepe. They add more than 50% provincial.

• Energy: Palos de la Frontera. (almost 12 % of the province)

• Extraction and transformation of energetic and derivative minerals: Huelva, Palos de la Frontera, Moguer, Bollullos Par del Condado, Niebla, Ayamonte, Cartaya, Palma del Condado, Isla Cristina, Valverde del Camino, Rociana del Condado and Gibraleón.They contribute, by decreasing order, with between 14 and 3 % to this activity in the province. The provincial index is 350.

• Metal transforming and mechanical precision industries: Huelva, Almonte, Isla Cristina and Bollullos Par del Condado. They contribute with an index of 154, 36, 33 and 32 respectively. The province represents a weight of 649 over the national level of 94 254.

• Manufacturing industries: Valverde del Camino and Huelva (both with an index of more than 100), with a provincial index of 1362 and 193 241 national.

• Construction: Huelva, Lepe, Almonte and Isla Cristina. Among them are an index of 1561, 3582 reaches the province and 344 426 Spain.

Villanueva de los Castillejos and Villablanca experienced the highest percentage increases in industrial activity, over 50% in the period 2001-2006. The provincial industrial index (Spain = 100,000) is 883, counting between Huelva and Palos de la Frontera with one of 540.

Tertiary sector: tourism and services

Playa de El Rompido (Cartaya). The tranquility of fishing villages coexists with the frenetic rhythm of tourism in summer times

Penares de Mazagón, beach of Rompeculos. January 2017

Retail business activities (activity indices in parentheses) are concentrated in Huelva (3,638), Almonte (622), Lepe (616), Isla Cristina (530) and Ayamonte (521). The provincial index is 11,948 and the national 994,210, which leaves the province with an index above average. The total commercial area of the province is 1,027,824 m², also higher than the national average per inhabitant. In the unbundled commercial sectors, the municipalities that stand out are the most populated: Huelva, Lepe, Almonte, Isla Cristina and Ayamonte.

Although it weighs heavily on GDP (just over 5%), tourism sets the pace for many municipalities and provides indirect employment to more workers than it provides directly. This sector is usually concentrated in the municipalities with the largest population, which coincides with those on the coast (Ayamonte, Almonte, Huelva, Isla Cristina, Lepe), although in recent years there has been growth in the area of the mountains. Compared to other tourist areas such as the Costa del Sol, Huelva's economy may not yet depend on this sector, although in recent years beach and soy tourism has grown significantly, as evidenced by the growth of urbanized areas on the coast.

Traditionally, the province of Huelva has absorbed the tourist demand for sun and beach from the neighboring provinces of Badajoz and Seville and from itself. From the last years of the XX century (since 1991) initiatives have been launched that have allowed the development of areas tourism and an increase in visitors from all over Spain (85% of inbound tourism is Spanish), although it still has an average weight among the Andalusian total, being the fifth Andalusian province in net number of visitors. The Provincial Tourism Board and others delegations usually take advantage of and associate the Light and the name of the Costa de la Luz in the provincial publication, using the slogan Huelva, the light or Isla Cristina, a sea of Light. Tourism provides direct or indirect work to 30% of the population of the coast.

The number of restaurants and bars in the province is 3,635. The municipalities with more than 200 are Huelva, Almonte, Lepe, Ayamonte, Punta Umbría and Isla Cristina with 854, 231, 215, 207, 207 and 203 respectively, all, like the province, above the national average per inhabitant and, furthermore, with a growth of 17.5% between 2001 and 2006, compared to 15.3% national growth. Alosno is the one that grew the most in this period, 58.8%, followed by Moguer, Aracena and Higuera de la Sierra, around 46% increase. The provincial tourism index (Spain = 100,000) is 886, with a national weight similar to that of the industry, Ayamonte standing out with 219, followed by Almonte and Isla Cristina with 176 and 136, respectively.

Leisure tourism

Riotinto Mining Park

The tourist development of the province has been later than other areas of the Spanish coast. Nuclei such as those of Islantilla or Isla Canela have emerged then between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the new century. Older developments, with little planning until recent times, are El Rompido, El Portil, Mazagón and Matalascañas (Torre de la Higuera). Although Punta Umbría had its beginnings as a district of Cartaya, after the democratization of sun and beach tourism its urban development began due to its proximity to the capital and its position on the beach, its current development cannot be understood without tourist activity. and their contribution to the holiday home. Other tourist centers are Nueva Umbría, Nuevo Portil, Punta del Moral, La Antilla and Urbasur. Also noteworthy in recent years is the so-called rural or inland tourism in the area of the mountains.

Cultural tourism

Replica de «Las tres Carabelas» en el Muelle de las Carabelas de Palos de la Frontera.

Tourism tends to diversify and the offer of museums and interpretation centers has grown considerably in recent years (Casa de los Ingleses in Punta Umbría, El Hombre y la Marisma on Isla Cristina or Puerta del Atlántico in Huelva), thus developing a tourism model that provides other types of attractions. The history of the Cuenca Minera, with centuries of exploitation and an unusual English presence in the country, attracts more than 62,000 tourists a year to the Mining Park, which offers an interpretation of the province at this time. But it is the historical-artistic complex, called Lugares Colombinos, which supports the greatest number of visits (197,000 in 2007) coming mostly from Spain, but with visitors of a great diversity of nationalities, who came with the intention of studying. or recall the events of the discovery of America. Moguer, Palos de la Frontera and its monastery of La Rábida are the Colombian towns par excellence, although the most visited of these places is the Muelle de las carabelas located in the surroundings of La Rábida.

Initiatives have also been recommended to develop the so-called industrial tourism. It would be aimed at those interested in learning about the Chemical Pole. All of this is complemented by the incentive of holding conferences in the coastal area.

This commitment to tourism and its change, so as not to depend so much on sun and beach tourism, has allowed the province to lead the increase in overnight stays in Andalusia.

Culture

The culture of Huelva, the result of the different peoples that passed through the area, is rich in traditions, festivals and celebrations. The Christian tradition has fostered a large number of festivities of a religious nature, however, cultural events related to Americanism and the history of the province also stand out. Among them are:

Monastery of La Rábida, in Palos de la Frontera.

Artistic heritage

Huelva has a very rich historical-artistic catalog in its province, both religious (in which there are many Christian temples, hermitages and sanctuaries and even old mosques from the time of Muslim domination and later converted into churches) and civil, the result of I pass through the land of different cultures.

The Historic Artistic Complex of the Colombian Places are of special interest, all the buildings or infrastructures that appear related to the industrial and mining architecture of the century XIX and the fortifications and castles that flourished throughout the Middle Ages, being an important border enclave with Portugal. Among the most outstanding Huelva monuments, those of greatest value, listed by location, are:

Religious monuments

Castle Church, Aracena

Almonaster Mosque

Parish of Our Lady of Assumption, Aracena

In the mountain town of Almonaster la Real, the Visigothic church-mosque built in the first decades of the X and whose mihráb is one of the oldest in Spain.

Church of Our Lady of Granada, Niebla

In the capital of the mountains, Aracena, the Priory Church (in the castle) of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores stands out. It was built in the 15th century and declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1995.

The Parish of Ntra. Sra. de la Asunción is undoubtedly one of the largest churches in the Huelva diocese and is located in the vicinity of the Plaza Alta de Aracena, in the Renaissance style of the century XVI.

The border town of Ayamonte is home to the Church of Our Lord and Savior, from the XV-XVIII, Mudejar style and built in the oldest neighborhood of the city. Inside are important works of Flemish origin.

From Huelva capital, the surroundings and Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de La Cinta stand out, on the Cabezo del Conquero; This temple was visited by Christopher Columbus to thank the favors granted during his voyage and inside it houses the Patron Saint of the city from which it takes its name. The Church of San Pedro, built on the remains of a mosque and at the foot of a now-defunct castle, which, due to its important heritage, has been declared an Asset of Cultural Interest.Or the old convent and now Iglesia Catedral de la Merced, also declared a monument of Asset of Cultural Interest,which is located next to to one of the campuses of the university.

Monastery of Santa Clara, Moguer

The religious tradition in Moguer is evident in the Monastery of Santa Clara. This National Monument was visited by Christopher Columbus to fulfill the so-called Columbian vow. In turn, the Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de la Granada stands out (from the XVIII century), whose tower is reminiscent of La Giralda Seville, the Convent of San Francisco (XV-XVIII) and the Corpus Christi Hospital (XIV century).

In La Redondela, is the Parish Church of Our Lady of the Twelve Apostles, dating from the 16th century XV, with its last enlargement in 1795 and recently restored.

The walled city of Niebla is home to the Church-Mosque of Nuestra Señora la Granada, a jewel of Christian architecture from the X century, to which the faithful went during the years of Muslim domination until the Almohads transformed it into a mosque. It was declared a historical-artistic monument in 1931.

La Palma del Condado: the Church of San Juan Bautista, from the 18th century century.

Church of San Jorge Mártir, in Palos de la Frontera

From Palos de la Frontera, a key town in the provincial history, stands out the Monastery of La Rábida, from the XIV centuries-XV. It was visited by Christopher Columbus on several occasions, during which he received support and organized the first of his voyages. It was declared a National Monument in 1856 and declared the First Historical Monument of the Hispanic Towns. The Church of San Jorge Mártir, from the century, is also important. XV, where the Royal Provision of the Catholic Monarchs was read, ordering Diego Rodríguez Prieto, and other residents of the town of Palos, to have two caravels ready to depart with Christopher Columbus. Declared a National Monument in 1931. Both temples are in the Gothic-Mudejar style.

In the small village of El Rocío, in Almonte, the hermitage of El Rocío is essential, important not only for its artistic value, but also for representing one of the most important Marian events in the world. This temple, built in 1963, replaced other previous ones that had become too small due to the influx of pilgrims.

Civil monuments

Old horse Aracena

Monument to the Discovery Faith

In the town of Almonte is the Torre vigía de la Higuera. Truncated on the beach in Matalascañas since 1755 as a result of the Lisbon earthquake, it is one of the typical images of the Huelva coast. This type of construction —common on the Huelva coast— was essential for defense and surveillance against frequent pirate incursions.

Casino of Arias Montano Aracena

In Aracena, although it is a natural monument, the Gruta de las Maravillas stands out for its conditioning of lights and sounds and its access to the urban area. Formed under the limestone rocks of Cerro del Castillo, this cave is one of the most visited places in Huelva. It was declared a natural monument.

Another monument of Aracena is the Cabildo Viejo, Hermitage of Santo Domingo, the casino of Arias Montano, the castle, the Town Hall, the old convent of Jesús María converted into a hotel.

The town of Cortegana appears dominated by its castle, from 1293. This fortress is one of the best preserved in the province.

The same is the case in Cumbres Mayores, where the castle-fortress of Sancho el Bravo has been a National Historic Monument since 1895. It is a clear example of defensive architecture against the Portuguese. Although construction began in 1293, it was not finished until early XIV century.

Mineral spring of the company Riotinto, in Huelva

In the city of Huelva, the Monument to the Discovery Faith stands out, a large cubist sculpture erected in 1929 in honor of the deeds of the discoverers of America, and two recognized examples of the Anglo-Saxon period in the city: the Barrio Queen Victoria, in the English style of the early XX century, built to accommodate the employees of the mines in the city, and the ore dock of the Riotinto company, from the end of the XIX century, built to facilitate the unloading of ore to the ships of the Port of Huelva and recognized Asset of Cultural Interest.

The most popular modernist building in Isla Cristina, the house of Gildita

In the municipality of Isla Cristina, it is worth noting the Huerta Noble dovecote, from the 18th century< /span>. It is the largest dovecote in southwestern Europe. It houses space for some thirty-six thousand pigeon nests and has its origins as an agrarian-industrial complex, with complex rural architecture, where spaces are perfectly rationalized.

The town hall of La Redondela has a Mudéjar Room, from the XV century, well preserved and of great cultural value.

From Minas de Riotinto, the Corta Atalaya, the largest open-pit mine in Europe, an example of the province's mining past, and the Bellavista neighborhood, which housed English mine personnel for years, are noteworthy.

In Moguer, the Almohad Castle and the beautiful Town Hall, built in the Baroque style and built in the XVIII century, are important.

Roman bridge of Niebla on the waters of the Rio Tinto

The importance of Niebla in the past is evident with constructions such as the Castillo de los Guzmán, its Roman Bridge, through which cars still pass, and the Almohad Walls, which, with its two kilometers of extension and almost fifty Torres, is a living example of the domination and importance of this Muslim city at the time of Al-Andalus.

In Palos de la Frontera, the Fontanilla is essential, from the XIII century, as it is a water supply place for the Columbian expedition.

Castle of San Marcos, Sanlúcar de Guadiana

In Sanlúcar de Guadiana, the castle of San Marcos stands out, from the XVIII century, built after the Portuguese War of Independence to prevent Portuguese attacks. Despite everything, it fell into Portuguese hands in 1666, being depopulated due to looting, finally becoming Spanish the following year and the population returning, however, until the XIX the war episodes followed one another. From the top of the hill on which it rises, it dominates the nearby town of Alcoutim and the entire Guadiana river.

From Trigueros, the Soto dolmen is of great interest. Discovered in 1922 by Armando de Soto and declared a National Monument in 1931, it is one of the most impressive examples of the Neolithic in southern Spain. Within the megalithism in the province, the whole of the village of El Pozuelo, in Zalamea la Real.

The town hall of Zufre in the mountains stands out for its Town Hall, from the year 1570.

Walls of fog, from the inside

Other important monuments or remains are the remains of the underground Roman aqueduct in Huelva and the city of Turobriga, located north of Aroche, which, with 12 hectares, is the only Roman site that can be visited in the province.

More recent are the modernist representations in buildings in the province, highlighting Huelva and Isla Cristina with its old Mercantile and Industrial Circle, popularly known as Casa de Gildita

Cultural heritage

Apart from the contributions of different people from Huelva to the arts, culture and folklore of the province, it has been and is rich enough to allow the development of autochthonous manifestations, especially in musical matters, highlighting the Andévalo for its folkloric wealth.

Probably the best known contribution is the fandango, a survivor of the Bailes de candil, in its traditional version as the Alosno fandango or a flamencada.

In terms of traditional dances, the dances of the Cascabeleros of Alosno in honor of San Juan Bautista, the Dances of the Pandero and the Fandango in Encinasola, as well as other ritual dances throughout the regions of the Andévalo and de la Sierra: Hinojales, Cumbres Mayores, Puebla de Guzmán, San Bartolomé de la Torre, El Cerro de Andévalo, Villablanca, Villanueva de las Cruces, etc.

The bagpipe and the tamboril, also called flute and drum in the province, can be considered indigenous musical instruments in a certain sense, as well as the rociera cane. The flute or bagpipe, always accompanied by the drum, arrived with the repopulation of Leon to later become the bagpipe of Huelva, with sound and morphological characteristics that distinguish it from other three-hole flutes in the west of the peninsula.

Similarly, in ethnographic and artisan matters, the Calañés hat and Valverde's country boots stand out. Finally, some elements of popular architecture can also be considered autochthonous, especially from the city of Huelva and the coast.

Museums

Provincial Museum of Huelva

Carnival Museum, Isla Cristina

As far as archeology is concerned, the different museums in the province try to offer a vision of human passage through the area. In the town of Aroche is the Archaeological Museum, attached to the visitor center and located in the old Los Jerónimos Convent, with a sample of pieces from a hundred nearby sites, especially from the nearby Roman city of Turobriga. But it is the Provincial Museum of Huelva that offers a detailed archeology section in which it shows hundreds of pieces from the city and the province. Also noteworthy in the capital is the Huelva Puerta del Atlántico Interpretation Center, which shows visitors British heritage in the city next to the Parque del Ferrocarril, conceived as a park-museum, which tries to put the dock, the mines in context and the province in the history of Huelva, to which is added the Visitor Reception Center of the Port of Huelva de las Cocheras del port, as an interpretation center of what the Port has been and is for the city.

On the Isla de Saltés you can see the archaeological site of Salthish, from the 11th century. To this is added, in Valverde del Camino, a small mineralogical museum, with objects of Roman origin related to mining and the deposits of Campillos and Melera.

The most important museums and spaces dedicated to natural and social aspects of the province are diverse. The Museum of the Marine World, in the Matalascañas dune park (Almonte), values the importance of the sea as a way of life for human beings and as an ecosystem. It has a large collection of skeletons of cetaceans and other animals. The Riotinto Mining Museum is located in Minas de Riotinto, whose purpose is the conservation and restoration of the Historical-Mining Heritage of the Riotinto Mining Region, in addition to the search for employment alternatives for the mining sector and the tourist exploitation of the entire mining region. Lastly, in the capital is the Marismas del Odiel Interpretation Center which, located on the Isla de Bacuta, offers information on this natural reserve and views of the estuary and the city of Huelva.

Regarding culture, the Carnival Museum stands out in Isla Cristina; Located on Calle de San Francisco, in an old restored neighborhood patio or "corrala", built in 1890. You can make a chronological review of the costumes, chronicles and posters of the island carnivals, even during the dictatorship.

On important personalities of the province, two museums stand out: the Casa Museo Zenobia and Juan Ramón Jiménez (Moguer), from the ( century) XVIII), a building declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, and the Martín Alonso Pinzón House-Museum, from the XV century, in Palos de la Frontera, where the Pinzón family (co-discoverers of America) and their descendants lived until the XX century, when it was acquired by the Palos de la Frontera City Council, which turned it into a house-museum. Finally, in Nerva we can add the Daniel Vázquez Díaz Modern and Contemporary Art Center, dedicated entirely to the life and work of the painter Daniel Vázquez Díaz and which is complemented by the Huelva museum, which offers another section of fine arts with works by Huelva painters.

Traditions and festivities

Gastronomy

The province of Huelva is full of a great gastronomic diversity, both rich and typical, a fusion of products from the mountains to the coast, from the ham par excellence to prawns or strawberries. The kings of Huelva gastronomy are Iberian ham, with its own Jabugo Protected Designation of Origin, and shellfish and fish (with special mention of cuttlefish, white shrimp and coquina). The first is eaten as is, requiring only a good cut. Shellfish require good cooking, and fish are usually eaten fried, grilled, roasted or stewed. Tuna mojama, produced mainly in Isla Cristina (the main Andalusian producer), is also highly appreciated although little known.

White gadget

Widely known is the choco de Huelva, which has given rise to a nickname for the people of Huelva, choqueros. Choco is the name by which cuttlefish is known, and a multitude of dishes are made with it, such as broad beans with choco, or simply fried choco. The white shrimp from Huelva is widely consumed. Another food product from the province, sold all over the world, is the Fresón de Huelva.

The gastronomy of the Sierra and Andévalo is full of recipes based on mushrooms such as the gurumelo (Amanita ponderosa), which is an excellent quality mushroom, or the níscalo (Lactarius deliciosus), which grow spontaneously.

Tuna mojama of Isla Cristina, along with Barbate (Cadiz)

The province is home to one of the four major denominations of origin for Andalusian wine and one of the two with aristocratic vinegars: the Denominación de Origen Condado de Huelva and Vinagres del Condado de Huelva. These DD.OO., with headquarters in Bollullos Par del Condado, currently cover 18 municipalities: Bollullos Par del Condado, Trigueros, Almonte, Beas, Bonares, Chucena, Gibraleón, Hinojos, La Palma del Condado, Lucena del Puerto, Manzanilla, Moguer, Niebla, Palos de la Frontera, Rociana del Condado, San Juan del Puerto, Trigueros, Villalba del Alcor and Villarrasa. According to the Regulatory Council, all these towns are suitable for the production of grapes of the authorized varieties. However, the area of upbringing and aging of the wines covered by these DD.OO. It includes only the municipalities of Bollullos Par del Condado, Almonte, Chucena, La Palma del Condado, Manzanilla, Moguer, Rociana del Condado, San Juan del Puerto and Villalba del Alcor. Although the main production is white wine from the zalema grape, it begins to expand with the production of red wines, even internationally awarded, sparkling wines and especially high-quality brandy.

La Santa Cruz de la Calle La Fuente, Rociana del Condado, Huelva

Religious

Hermitage of El Rocío, center of one of the largest Marian celebrations in the world

Catholic pilgrimages, in honor of saints and virgins, are celebrated with the arrival of spring. Those of the Virgen de Montemayor (Moguer), Virgen de la Bella (Lepe) or the Virgen de la Peña are important. But among all of them, the pilgrimage of El Rocío stands out, in the small village of El Rocío (Almonte) that welcomes some two million people every year.^{[citation required]} Due to their historical importance, the images of the Virgen de los Milagros, patron saint of Palos de la Frontera, before whom Christopher Columbus and the sailors of the first voyage of discovery prayed, and the Virgen de la Cinta, patron saint of Huelva, who received the admiral's visit upon returning from the first voyage to fulfill a vow made during the return.^{[citation required]}

Holy Week, with typically Andalusian features, has deep roots and tradition in Huelva, Moguer, Ayamonte and Aracena, among others. In the case of Huelva, it is declared of National Tourist Interest. Also the Cruces de Mayo, with a great tradition in towns in the Condado region such as Bonares and Rociana del Condado, or in the Sierra such as Almonaster la Real.

It is also worth noting the San Antonio Abad festivities, in Trigueros, which are one of the most important and unique festivities in Andalusia.^{[citation required]} At these festivities religious and popular elements are intertwined, offering us a beautiful spectacle of participation and coexistence with bread, sausages, hams and other items to the crowd, in offering to San Antonio Abad who processions through the streets of Trigueros for more than 30 hours, being This is the longest procession in Spain.

The so-called Pinwheels complete the catalog, in the Sierra de Aracena and in the Cuenca Minera area (December 8), coinciding with the feast of the Immaculate Conception, when children burn vegetable figures called "pinwheels" in bonfires, made with olive branches and dry chestnut leaves, and the impressive Cabalgata de Reyes Magos de Higuera de la Sierra, in which the biblical characters are represented by children without making any kind of movement.

Civilians

Local festivities stand out, such as Las Colombinas in Huelva capital, around August 3, organized since the XIX century to commemorate the acts of the discovery of America, the Cartaya Agricultural and Industrial Fair, which is held at the beginning of October, or the Harvest Festival in La Palma del Condado, which is born from the strong winemaking tradition of Condado de Huelva.

Among the festivals, the Castillo de Niebla Theater and Dance Festival stands out inside the Guzmán castle, the Nights of the Ibero-American Forum in La Rábida or the Villablanca International Dance Festival, all three of which have been well received by the public since years ago, to which two cinematographic references have been added, the Ibero-American Film Festival of Huelva, which for more than three decades has been committed to Spanish, Portuguese and New World cinema and the most recently created Film and Television Festival of Islantilla, dedicated to television. This section is completed by the Cortegana Medieval Fair, in August, which has been held with great success since 1996 when a group of "Friends of the Castle" decided to help enhance the town's fortress and the Medieval Discovery Fair of Palos de la Border, in the month of March. To promote products derived from pork, the Aracena Regional Ham and Iberian Pig Fair is held in October. Also interesting is the so-called Saca de las Yeguas that takes place every year in Almonte.

But probably one of the most deeply rooted festivals in the province are carnivals, especially those of Isla Cristina that were not interrupted during the Franco regime. There is also a carnival tradition in Ayamonte and Huelva.

Sports

Huelva Recreational Alignment in 1906

Monument to Alonso Sánchez de Huelva, prediscoverer of America

The arrival of Anglo-Saxon businessmen, at the end of the XIX century, meant that they implanted their sports practices in the province, for which sports clubs and institutions were quickly formed. It was in the province where sports such as cricket or golf were first practiced, but it was soccer that gave the province a double deanery: being the first place on the peninsula where it was practiced (Minas de Riotinto) and having the oldest club (Recreativo de Huelva). Currently the most important sports institutions are:

In soccer, the only team in the province that has played in the First Division stands out, the Real Club Recreativo de Huelva and clubs like Río Tinto F.C. which also stands out for its age, the Club Deportivo San Roque de Lepe, Ayamonte C.F, A.D. Cartaya or the Sporting Club of Huelva. Regarding the practice of other sports, institutions such as Recreativo Conquero for women's basketball, Recreativo-IES La Orden for midfielders (both in the highest category), Club Baloncesto Ciudad de Huelva, Real Club Recreativo de Tenis de Huelva stand out. And the Pedro Alonso Niño Handball Club.

The largest sports facilities are located in the capital, such as the Nuevo Colombino stadium, the Palacio de los Deportes and the Ibero-American Athletics Stadium, although the Monteblanco Speed Circuit in Palma del Condado, the sports city of Isla Cristina, soccer stadiums in Cartaya and Ayamonte and several golf courses.

Notable people