Sticks of the border

The city of Palos de la Frontera is a Spanish municipality located in the province of Huelva (Andalusia). In the year 2022 it had 12,483 inhabitants (INE) and a population density of 253.20 inhabitants/km².

The city's economy traditionally depended on the work of the sea, both fishing and trade. But due to emigration to American lands and neighboring towns, the fishing and commercial fleet was almost completely disappearing, with which the municipality left the sea aside and dedicated itself to agricultural work. Since the last third of the XX century, the main economic engine has been the cultivation and harvesting of strawberries, the product being exported to a large part of of the European Union. In addition, a significant number of factories and industries are located in the municipal area, dedicated to activities such as oil refining for the production of fuels, or the storage and regasification of liquefied natural gas.

Although there are traces of settlement in the area from the Upper Paleolithic, Palos de la Frontera was born, documentary speaking, at the beginning of the century XIV, when Alfonso XI of Castile donates it to Alonso Carro.

The history of this city is closely linked to maritime work and geographical discoveries. This is why Palos de la Frontera is known as the cradle of the Discovery of America (as stated on its coat of arms), since it was in this city that Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Indies. They set sail from the port of this city on August 3, 1492, arriving on October 12 of that year on an island on the current American continent, which was unknown to Europeans at that time.

For this reason, Palos is part of the historical-artistic itinerary known as Columbian Places. Currently, the process for the declaration of the Columbian Places as a World Heritage Site is being completed.

Symbols

The municipal coat of arms of Palos de la Frontera is based, in part, on the one granted by Emperor Carlos V, on September 23, 1519, to the Pinzón brothers and the sailors from Palos de la Frontera who went with them to discover the Indies.

Heraldic description: "Spanish shield. In azure, two caravels in the center and a ship in its natural colors at the point, all of it in the sea on silver waves and two halves of the world moving from the flanks, also in their natural color. Gold border with four hearts gules and four alternating saber anchors. It is presented loaded on a field of silver parchment, at the foot of it a floating ribbon with the legend: "CRADLE OF DISCOVERY", by stamp royal open crown".

The city council has been using this seal to validate its documentation since 1968.

The flag of Palos de la Frontera is composed of three stripes parallel to each other and perpendicular to the pole, of equal dimension. The first yellow, the second white and the third blue. Centered and superimposed the local coat of arms.

Physical geography

Municipal Term of Palos de la Frontera, in the Metropolitan Region of Huelva.

Municipal Term of Palos de la Frontera

Its geographic coordinates are 37°13′N 6°53′W / 37.217, -6.883, and its average altitude is approximately 25 meters above the level from the sea, at a distance of about 14 kilometers from the provincial capital, Huelva, 9 kilometers from the neighboring city of Moguer, and a few kilometers from the beaches of Mazagón, a community belonging to both municipalities, Moguer and Palos de la Frontera, its surface area being 49.3 km².

Northwest: Huelva	North: Río Tinto	Northeast: Moguer
West: Huelva and Río Tinto		This: Moguer
Southwest: Isla Saltés and Punta Umbría	South: River of Huelva and Atlantic Ocean	Sureste: Almonte and Atlantic Ocean

Palos de la Frontera is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the so-called Tierra Llana of the province of Huelva, (the westernmost province of the Andalusian community on the border with southern Portugal), on the left bank of the Tinto River, four kilometers from its mouth in the Atlantic, at the junction with the Odiel River, in the so-called "Ría de Huelva", whose waters constitute the southern limit of the 4873 hectares of its municipal area.

Relief

The main geological characteristics of the area, in general, are tertiary, quaternary and recent era lands. The landscape of the municipality of Palos de la Frontera is made up of three different characteristic zones: countryside, marshes and coast.

The composition of the terrain of "the countryside" of sandy clays and pebbles, reddish due to the Quaternary diluvial mantle, and which is located on tertiary earthy clays and limestones, make this area the most suitable for agricultural activities, although unfortunately it is not very extensive given the small term of Palos de the Border.

"The marshes" and lagoons occupy an extensive strip of land on the southern limits of the municipal area and on the banks of the Tinto River, among them we find the "laguna primera de Palos", the & #34;the mothers" or the "Estero Domingo Rubio". One of the main characteristics of "las marshes" It is the biodiversity that occurs in them, from ducks, cormorants, purple swamps, to egrets and gray herons. These marshes/lagoons are the ones that seem to confirm the hypothesis of several authors, that the place name Palos comes from the Latin "palus", which means & #34;lagoon" or " swamp".

Finally we find ourselves in the southern area with the "coast" area, which is low, sandy and rectilinear. It is very extensive and in it we find the beaches of Julián, Morla and Mazagón. Along the extension that goes from the Torre de Arenillas and the del Oro, small streams drain. It is also known as the Coast of Castilla, since it is the first that the Castilian kings dominated in Andalusia.

Demographics

In the last century, the population of the municipality has quintupled, being the year 2022 with 12,483 inhabitants its demographic zenith.

Graphic of demographic evolution of Palos de la Frontera between 1900 and 2022

History

Although there are traces of settlement in the area from the Upper Paleolithic, as well as numerous legends that allude to its Tartessian, Roman, Visigothic and Muslim past, the oldest concession in Palos de la Frontera is the one made by Sancho IV in the ceding the "house or tower of Palos" to Admiral Pay Árias Cherino (or, according to other texts, Pay Gómez) around 1295, although although Fernando IV confirms this favor in Pay's daughter, Bereneguela Gómez, it will be Alfonso XI who definitively donates " the house of Palos" to Berenguela and her husband Alonso Carro in 1322. In this way, it was separated from what had constituted the Almohad kingdom of Niebla, to which it continued to belong even after its conquest in the middle of the century XIII. Palos de la Frontera was at this time, as it presumably was throughout its previous history, a very small population center that subsisted on coastal fishing, taking advantage of the qualities that, as an inland port, sheltered from the wind and pirate attacks, it offered the Red River.

Middle Ages

The origins

Catholic Kings. Gentlemen of the village of Palos.

Álvar Pérez de Guzmán, true founder of the town of Palos, was only fourteen years old when King Juan I of Castile, in 1379, granted him the towns of Palos and Villalba as compensation for having taken the towns of Huelva and Gibraleón from him to give them to the Countess of Medinaceli. Álvar Pérez obtained from the monarch the privilege of exempting from any royal tax the first 50 families that settled in Palos resorting to his repopulation initiative, he established with his legislation the bases of the municipal legal system and dedicated the scarce and not very fertile lands of the palermo term to olive cultivation and oil production. After the untimely death of Don Álvar, his widow, Elvira de Ayala, daughter of the chancellor of Castile, continued his work until her death in 1434. Each of Álvar and Elvira's daughters, named Isabel and Juana, inherited one half of the town of Palos, which through their respective marriages became lordships, one half of the Count of Miranda and the other of the Count of Cifuentes, which in turn were dispersed among various heirs.

The Golden Age

The town of Palos, from the middle of the XV century, was going through a period of demographic development (about 2700 inhabitants in 1478) and economic thanks to the maritime activities of his men, who established prosperous trade relations with Mediterranean and North Atlantic Europe, based on fishing and other products obtained in the Guinea area.

The golden age of Palos de la Frontera was the decade from 1470-1479, when the succession dispute between Juana la Beltraneja and Isabel la Católica led to a peninsular war between the kingdom of Castile and Portugal. This meant for Palos de la Frontera the royal support of its incursions into Guinea and, ultimately, to dispute its territories and overseas businesses with the Portuguese, rivals in oceanic expansion. The main Castilian naval expeditions, against Portugal and its domains, always required the presence of Palermo sailors, true experts in Atlantic navigation who, thanks to their expertise and exploits, 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.

However, the naval war ended in defeat for the Catholic Monarchs, who in the Peace of Alcaçovas (1479) abandoned all rights to the Atlantic-African seas and lands, except the Canary Islands, to Portugal. The two kingdoms were reconciled through the marriage of Princess Isabel of Castile with the heir to the Portuguese throne. The Palermo sailors found themselves dispossessed by this treaty of some fishing and commercial areas essential for their subsistence and on which, with so much effort, they had established themselves. In these circumstances, the Palermo disobeyed, as a matter of survival, what was agreed by their Kings and Portugal on many occasions.

In 1479, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, Enrique de Guzmán, bought a twelfth of the town from one of the Mirandas for 2,200,000 maravedíes, despite the fact that said part only rented 40,000 maravedíes per year. Shortly after, In 1480, the count of Cifuentes, Pedro de Silva, began to reunite the six twelfths scattered among the members of his family to, in June 1492, sell half of the town to the Catholic Monarchs for 16,400,000 maravedíes. On these dates the departure of the Columbian expedition was already being prepared. Given that Pedro de Silva was a maestresala at Court and that his brother Juan held the important positions of senior lieutenant of the King and Queen and assistant of Seville, the reunification of half of the Cifuentes dominion over Palos has been interpreted as a maneuver of the Crown to prevent the Duke of Medina Sidonia from annexing the town to his already extensive dominions in the region, and thus ensure a royal port from which to launch the expedition to the Indies.

Modern Age

Palos de la Frontera, cradle of the discovery of America

Romantic representation of Christopher Columbus and the Pinzón brothers upon arrival in America (National Exhibition (1862), First-class Medal) by Dióscoro Puebla.

Statue of the Brothers Pinzón, co-discoverers of America, in Palos de la Frontera, at the bottom is observed the Fontanilla, place where it affirms the tradition that the discovering ships were supplied with water, and finally, to the bottom, the Church of St. George Martyr, where it was read to the real provision of the Catholic kings that forced, certain neighbors of Palos, to bring two caravels for the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.

Palos de la Frontera is known worldwide as the cradle of the Discovery of America. In this city -villa, in those times- the discovering company was conceived, prepared and organized. The caravels La Pinta and La Niña and the ship Santa María departed from its port on August 3, 1492, with Admiral Christopher Columbus, the Pinzón brothers, the sailors of Palos de la Frontera and the nearby region heading towards the unknown and in fact it would be the discovery of the New World, unknown to Europe at that time.

Their incursions into Guinea, previously favored by the Castilian monarchs in their struggles against the Portuguese crown, had become criminal and subject to punishment by the Treaty of Alcáçovas. Possibly due to one of these incursions, certain villages were condemned to serve the Crown for two months, with two caravels rigged at their expense. On April 30, 1492, the Kings ordered that these ships be placed at the service of Christopher Columbus and that they also be paid four months at the usual price to complete the six months that the voyage was expected to last. The Crown thus reduced the expenses of the expedition and linked the marine experts of Palos de la Frontera to it.

On May 23 of that same year, said royal provision was read in the square of the Church of San Jorge Mártir in the town. However, Columbus continued to have difficulties recruiting crew members, among other reasons because the ordinances of Palos prohibited charter ships to people who did not have a stake in the lordship of the town. Probably for this reason, the Kings acquired at the end of June 1492 half of the town of Palos belonging to the Count of Cifuentes for 16,400,000 maravedíes. From this moment on, the Pinzón family, a prestigious family of Palermo sailors, decided to take part in the Columbian expedition and thanks to them Columbus was able to find the sailors he needed. Also notable during this period was the role of the La Rábida Monastery, close to Palos de la Frontera (and in its municipal area), where Columbus found hospitality and support.

Finally, and finalizing the preparations, the discovery expedition left the port of Palos on August 3, 1492 with two caravels and a ship, arriving in America on October 12. The Santa María was shipwrecked on American soil, but the other two ships returned to Europe, arriving separately at Palos de la Frontera on March 15, 1493.

Palos de la Frontera, the Franciscans and the evangelization of America

When one talks about the role played by the people of Palos de la Frontera in the History of America, one usually thinks, almost exclusively, of the events related to the preparation and execution of the first Columbian voyage. But, little by little, research and study are shaping up for us multiple actions in which the Palermos show themselves as prominent protagonists in the colonization of the New World, among the pioneers who helped build the pillars of a new society, of a new culture, and actively participating in evangelization.

From the fundamental support that Fray Antonio de Marchena and Fray Juan Pérez gave to Christopher Columbus when his spirit failed in the face of adversity, the Franciscan Convent of Santa María de La Rábida closely followed the evolution of events, establishing itself as one of the first foci of American evangelization. As is logical, the influence of the Rabideño convent, led to the Franciscans especially standing out among the first evangelizers of Palermo America, such as Bishop Fray Juan Izquierdo, Fray Juan de Palos, Fray Juan Cerrado, Fray Pedro Salvador, Fray Alonso Vélez de Guevara, Fray Juan Quintero, Fray Thomás de Narváez and Fray Francisco Camacho, who mostly took the habits in Mexico and Lima.

The real name of Palos de la Frontera

Etymologically, its place name comes from the Roman word Palus ("lagoon"), and in fact it was only called Palos until 1642, but in the middle of the first chroniclers of the Indies, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and Francisco López de Gómara, believed that Palos and Moguer were a only people, they created the incorrect and non-existent Palos de Moguer, which spread with great speed, becoming encyclopedias and study manuals. Something similar happened with Fray Juan Pérez and Fray Antonio de Marchena, with whom they created a single and non-existent character: Fray Juan Pérez de Marchena or Fray Juan Antonio Pérez de Marchena.

In May 1642, the Municipal Council of Palos adopted the name Palos de la Frontera, taking advantage of the fact that the rebellious Marquis of Ayamonte sent the Portuguese troops from Guadiana to Tinto, and to put a "surname" to Palos, to cover the one that made it disappear as a town, uniting it, erroneously, to the neighboring city.

Topographic map of the area in the centuryXVIII.

Decline and rebirth

After the Columbian expeditions, the Catholic Monarchs established a trade monopoly in Seville with the "islands of the Indies", Tierra Firme, the Canary Islands and Barbary, creating the Casa de Contratación in 1503. This implied the closure of ports to overseas traffic from the Andalusian coast, thus beginning a rapid economic decline.

The attraction of the Indies was so important that it absorbed the reduced Palermo population. The most capable and intrepid shipowners and sailors emigrated to America or Seville. The town also had to face competition from neighboring Moguer, which had extensive agricultural land, and Huelva, where the Duke of Medina Sidonia founded a farm. Thus, in 1508 the population of Palos had dropped to 400 neighbors, about 1,800 inhabitants, and by the middle of the century, the seafaring town found itself hardly without ships. The fishermen, to continue exercising their trade, had to emigrate and hire boats from neighboring towns. At this time, a large part of the population was made up of slaves, whose owners began to sell to other, more prosperous towns. to pay more, originating a vicious circle, emigration; fiscal pressure that ended up depopulating the town almost completely.

For more than three centuries the population subsisted thanks to meager agricultural production. Palos de la Frontera, despite having had an outstanding participation in the geographical discoveries, was practically doomed to disappear, remaining in the middle of the century XVIII with only 125 inhabitants.

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

At the end of that same century, some Catalan investors, including D. Antonio Bueno, dedicated themselves to the wine-producing exploitation of their lands, which caused a slow but constant growth of the population, which did not reach pre-Columbian figures up to the middle of the XX century.

Contemporary Age

Palos de la Frontera, a fishing village, has had a setback since the end of the XX century in this activity, focused on the capture of shellfish, giving way to the industry, with an important part within the Industrial Pole of the province and a new agriculture that has led to the rebirth of the potentialities of the municipality. It is an agriculture based on irrigation and the cultivation of strawberries from Palos, which is exported to most of the European Union.

The La Rábida refinery, located in the municipality of Palos de la Frontera, began operations in 1967 with a distillation capacity of two million tons of crude. After successive expansions, it currently has a capacity of 9.5 million tons and 840 employees.

Monument to the Plus UltraAt the Queen's pier, in the Rabies.

N.a S.a of the Miracles. Patron of Palos de la Frontera.

From Palos to Plata, the Plus Ultra flight

On January 22, 1926, after attending a mass in front of the Virgen de los Milagros that was circumstantially in the parish of San Jorge, at 7:55 a.m., he left the Calzadilla pier, rising above the surroundings of La Rábida, in Palos, the "Plus Ultra", the first seaplane to cross the Atlantic Ocean. In commemoration of the first Colombian voyage, once again Palos de la Frontera is chosen as the start of a transoceanic adventure, this time by air.

The crew was made up of the infantry commander Ramón Franco Bahamonde, commander of the Plus Ultra, from Ferrol (La Coruña), the artillery captain Julio Ruiz de Alda, from Estella (Navarra), the lieutenant Juan Manuel Durán González, from Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), the mechanical soldier Pablo Rada Ustarroz, from Caparroso (Navarra). They took the photographer from Cuatro Vientos, Leopoldo Alonso, to the Canary Islands to film the beginning of the trip. The aircraft used was a Dornier Wal, a German seaplane, made in Italy.

The journey was made in seven stages that culminated in Buenos Aires (Argentina). Alfonso XIII of Spain donated the Plus Ultra to the Argentine Navy, where it served as a mail plane until decommissioned. In exchange, the Argentine people donated a statue of Icarus that was placed next to the Queen's dock in the area of La Rábida.

On that occasion, the famous tango singer Carlos Gardel composed a tango titled "La gloria del águila" in his letter he says:

"From Palos, the eagle flies
and Columbus, with his big snail,
reminds us of such emotion
the feat that shakes the whole heart".

Alfonso XIII took advantage of the return of the expedition to grant Palos de la Frontera the title of city and to its Town Hall the title of Most Excellent, which he had already signed in July of the previous year, in addition to granted the mayor of the town the title of "Covered Knight", since he was the protagonist of the anecdote of forgetting to take off his hat before the king.

In 1985 Palos de la Frontera received the Pomme d'or tourism award.

John Paul II in Palos de la Frontera

Pope John Paul II visited Palos de la Frontera on June 14, 1993, as part of his tour of the Columbian Places and El Rocío, on the occasion of the V Centennial of the Discovery and Evangelization of America. In that first and, up to now, only visit of a Supreme Pontiff to Palos de la Frontera, the Virgin of Miracles, patron saint of the city, was canonically crowned, with the godparents of the coronation being the kings of Spain Juan Carlos I and Sofía, represented in his daughter the Infanta Cristina. There is the fact that this is the only image of the Virgin crowned by John Paul II in Spain.

The pope, after imparting his blessing, added some impromptu words:

«Thank you very much for this meeting. It is a great emotion to meet in the totally historic place where a new chapter of the history of the world, of our world, of the new world, of the whole world, of the earthly globe began. Where the history of Salvation and the Evangelization of the American Continent also began. They always return to this blessed place by entrusting themselves to the Lady of Miracles, to the Mother of Men, to the Queen of the Americas, all our brothers here, in Spain and elsewhere in the world. May Jesus Christ be praised."

Municipal policy

The City Hall of Palos de la Frontera is located in the "Comandante Ramón Franco Bahamonde" square, where there are two municipal buildings, in charge of political and municipal affairs.

The city council is the highest municipal body and is in charge of regulating the daily life of citizens, dealing with matters such as urban planning, municipal tax collection, road safety management, maintenance of public roads and gardens, organization of local festivals and various cultural events.

In November 1975, Pilar Pulgar Fraile was appointed by the civil governor of Huelva, Matías Valdecantos García, mayor of Palos de la Frontera and took office on November 26, four days after Juan Carlos I was proclaimed King of Spain, becoming the first female mayor of the new monarch's reign.

The city council is governed by a government team made up of the political force or forces that have obtained the greatest number of votes in the elections. The councilors of the municipal corporation are elected every four years, through universal suffrage, by citizens over 18 years of age. It is chaired by Mayor Carmelo Romero Hernández, of the Andalusian Popular Party, since the municipal elections of 1995.

The Municipal Corporation, since 2015, is made up of 17 councilors. In the 2019 municipal elections, four political formations were presented, obtaining representation in the city council three. The current distribution of councilors in the City Council is 11 councilors for the candidacy presented by the PP, 5 for the one presented by the PSOE-A and 1 for Ciudadanos.

Economy

The Palos Fresón is the economic engine of the municipality.

The surface of the herbaceous crops is 879 hectares and that of the woody crops 142, the main crops are the strawberry and the strawberry, the olive grove, the peach tree and the Triticale.

Evolution of outstanding municipal debt

Graphic of evolution of living debt of the Town Hall of Palos de la Frontera between 2008 and 2021

Living debt of the Town Hall of Palos de la Frontera in thousands of Euros according to data from the Ministry of Finance and Ad. Public.

Monuments and places of interest

Church of Saint George.

La FontanillaIn Palos de la Frontera.

Statue of Martin Alonso Pinzón.

Among its monuments, the following stand out:

• The parish church of St. George MartyrGothic Mudejar style, with a Mudejar door called the "boyfriends." Inside you can contemplate an image in alabaster of the centuryXIII with the figure of Santa Ana, a Tuscan ceramic altarpiece of the centuryXVII and some Renaissance frescoes of the centuryXVI. In this Church we read the Royal Provision, which ordered Diego Rodríguez Prieto and other residents of the village of Palos, to have prepared two caravels to leave with Christopher Columbus.

• The Port of Palos, was the port from which, on August 3, 1492, the discovering expedition, led by Christopher Columbus in command of the carabela or nao Santa Maria and the Pinta and Niña carabelas.

• The castle. Next to the church, in a head, we find the remains of Castle of Paloswhich have been a source of archaeological interventions on several occasions.

• The Casa Museo de Martín Alonso Pinzón, in which you can admire navigation tools, paintings and maps related to the collombin gesta; the visits are made prior appointment at the Town Hall.

• La Fontanilla. Leaving Palos de la Frontera you reach the Fontanilla. From the Gate of the Brides of the Church of St. George, the Fontanilla, next to which was the historic Muelle from which the discovering expedition departed, and which was the public source of Palos de la Frontera, protected by a square temple of bricks built in the centuryXIII and Mudejar style, where, according to tradition, the ships Santa Maria, the Niña and the Pinta were supplied with water.

• Calzadilla Pier. Small dock built for the commemoration of the Fourth Centennial of the Discovery of America and was restored at the end of the centuryXX.. From this place the historic expedition of the Plus Ultra took place on January 22, 1926, and that made the journey Palos de la Frontera - Buenos Aires. On his return on April 5, 1926 the crew was received by King Alfonso XIII.

• The statue of Martin Alonso Pinzón, captain and shipper of this villa and protagonist of the exploit of the Discovery.

• The Rabbi.

On the road to Huelva we find the place of la Rábida, one of the most beautiful corners of the municipality and in it we find the Franciscan monastery of La Rábida. The monastery is the place where the voyage of Columbus was forged. Erected in the 14th centuries- The Gothic-Mudejar church, where you can admire a crucified figure, and the Virgen de los Milagros, from the XV, in front of which Columbus and the sailors who carried out the discovery company prayed. Also noteworthy are the rooms decorated with frescoes by Daniel Vázquez Díaz, the cloister and the museum, where numerous objects commemorating the Discovery of America are preserved. It is 2000 m² long and has an irregular plan.

Monastery of La Rábida.

Replica of «The Three Carabelas» in the Carabelas Spring from Palos de la Frontera.

Throughout the more than 500 years of its history, the monastery has undergone modifications, especially as a result of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Christopher Columbus stayed in this monastery years before leaving for the New World.

The monastery was declared a National Monument in 1856. It also deserved the declaration of First Historical Monument of the Hispanic towns.

You can also visit the Monument to the Discoverers in this setting. It is reached by an avenue in which all the shields of the Ibero-American countries are shown, made of tiles. Nearby we find the José Celestino Mutis Botanical Park, with native and American species. Also in this environment is the International University of Andalusia, Ibero-American Headquarters Santa María de la Rábida, the Ibero-American Forum, a modern and multi-purpose construction as a conference, concert and show center, El Muelle de la Carabelas, opposite, a permanent exhibition place, where we can relive the American adventure and visit the replicas of the caravels that were made for the celebration of the V Centenary. Downstream we find the Muelle de la Reina, where, through Icarus, the first flight between Spain and America is commemorated, that of the Plus Ultra seaplane.

• Mazagón. On the coast you can visit the beaches of Mazagón, a Parador de Turismo and the Puerto Deportivo with modern facilities.

Culture and traditions

• Patron Festivals of San Jorge Mártir. On April 23, the party of the town's patron is celebrated. This holy martyr is the patron of the city since the foundation of the parish that bears its very name. This day is celebrated in the morning a solemn religious function and in the afternoon the procession is performed with the image of the patron saint.

Medieval Fair of Discovery

• On August 15, the day of the Assumption of Mary, the feast is celebrated to N.a S.a de los Milagros, where after the solemn Eucharistic Function on the morning of that day, the magnificent procession of the patron is carried out by the main streets of the city during the evening.
• Romería de N.a S.a de los Milagros. The last weekend of August is celebrated the pilgrimage of the patroness in the paraje of La Rábida, with the typical Andalusian colorful of this kind of celebrations around the figure of the Virgin Mary.
• The ephemeris of the departure of the carabelas, on August 3, the return of the carabelas, on March 15, the Discovery of America, on October 12 and the departure of the Plus Ultra, on January 22.
• Around 15 March (local day of Martin Alonso Pinzón), the Medieval Fair of Discovery is celebrated, making the town a typical villa of the centuryXV. This fair is usually held on the weekend after 15 March.
• During the months of July and August, the Provincial Council program cultural activities at the Ibero-American Forum.

Crafts and gastronomy

Throughout the city we can find different samples of crafts, both local and from the province. The geographical location of Palos de la Frontera allows it to have high-quality products, as diverse as seafood (white prawns, langoustines or langoustines) and Iberian ham, as well as an excellent range of wines from Condado de Huelva and its own must wine.. As typical dishes, those made with fish stand out, such as mackerel with tomato or cuttlefish with potatoes, as well as other typical dishes such as "habas enzapatás". Its confectionery is also notable, where the almond and cider hornazos stand out.

But the product of special relevance is the strawberry, which has become the economic engine of the town in recent decades.

Sports

• Football: The CD Pinzón, founded in 1966, is the football club of the city and plays in the First Andalusian Division.

Twinned cities

Palos de la Frontera, like other cities, actively participates in the twinning of cities that promotes cultural, friendly and human exchange between different parts of the world. The town is twinned with the following cities:

Featured Characters

The most illustrious historical figures born in Palos de la Frontera are related to geographical discoveries in general and to the Discovery and Evangelization of America in particular. Among the best known are:

Finch Brothers

• Martín Alonso Pinzón: captain of the carabela The Pinta, leader of the sailors of Palos de la Frontera, without his intervention Columbus would not have achieved the ships and the crew he needed; he rejected the ships contracted by Columbus, contract the carabela the Pinta and contributed half a million marvels of his personal fortune. His great experience as a sailor was decisive in the Discovery of America.
• Vicente Yáñez Pinzón: captain of the carabela The girl. He later made, on his own account or the Crown, three more trips to the New World. First European navy that sailed through the Southern Hemisphere, discoverer of Brazil, explorer of the Amazon River and pioneer in trips across the Gulf of Mexico. He was appointed by the kings Royal Pilot, Advisor, Knight, Captain General and Governor of Puerto Rico.
• Francisco Martín Pinzón: master of the carabela The Pinta. He accompanied his brother Vincent to Brazil and perished in Columbus's fourth trip.

Other explorers and sailors

• Cristóbal Quintero: owner of the carabela the Pinta, participated in the first and third collombin journey, probably also in the second.
• Diego de Lepe: he left the port of Palos in December 1499 and returned in September 1500. He landed on the Brazilian coast in February 1500, and arrived to Cape San Agustín in Brazil after Vicente Yáñez.
• Antón de Alaminos: pilot in the trips of Grijalva and Hernández de Córdoba, guided the ships of Hernán Cortés in the conquest expedition of Mexico. He was the most expert navigator of these seas, discoverer of the Gulf of Mexico stream, his cartographer works were essential for trips back to Europe.
• Juan Bermúdez: discoverer of the Bermuda Islands.
• Juan Rodríguez Mafra: real pilot with great experience in trips to the Caribbean. He was a pilot of the Naos Concepción and San Antonio on the trip of Magellan - Elcano, first to turn around the world.
• Gonzalo Guerrero: shipwreck in Yucatan, he was a slave in several tribes until his military knowledge and adaptation to Mayan culture led him to be nacomChief of the warriors. He married the princess of his tribe and fought boldly against Castilians for many years until his death, so he was called by the Spaniards "the Renegade". In Mexico it is considered Father of Mestizaje.

Fray Juan Izquierdo, a native of Palos de la Frontera, Bishop of the Yucatan.

Religious

• Fray Juan de Palos: was one of the twelve missionaries called "Apostles of America". He carried out a great work of evangelization in Mexican lands. Martyr in Florida.
• Bishop Fray Juan Izquierdo: great organizer of the Church and Evangelization in Yucatan, where he also carried out important educational work. It concluded the Cathedral of Merida (Mexico) in which it is buried.

Others

• Garcí Fernández: physical or doctor of Palos at the end of the centuryXV. He was the scientist of the collombino project. Researchers of the discovery of America give great credit to the testimonies of this physicist.