The Sanctuario de Nuestra Seņora Virgen de la Cinta, a chapel where Columbus is said to have prayed before setting sail.
By Jo Williams
Huelva's attraction for successive generations of
settlers lies in its geographical position on a large river estuary,
on the Atlantic coast, and its proximity to rich mineral deposits.
Its origins can be traced back to prehistoric times, when the first
settlers in the Bronze Age were drawn to the area by the minerals
in the area that is now the site of the Río Tinto mines.
In the 7th century BC Phoenician and Greek merchants
established a trading settlement and port in Huelva and exported
the minerals they found throughout the Mediterranean. The Phoenician
and Greek influence on western Andalucía around this time
is known as Tartessian culture, which had an important base in Huelva.
Tartessus was described by writers much later as
a mythical place of great wealth, which some believed was located
where Huelva stands today. (Others argue it was either in the area
now the Coto Doñana, Seville or Cadiz, among other places).
Tartessian archaeological finds are displayed in the city's museum,
the Museo de Huelva. Four Tartessian burial mounds have been discovered
in the Parque Moret in the north of the city.
The Romans expanded the port for exporting their
minerals, mainly copper and silver extracted from the Río
Tinto mines, to other places in their vast empire. They renamed
Huelva Onuba Æstuaria and the city's inhabitants are still
called onubenses today. Underneath the ridge of hills known as the
Cabezos, in the Conquero area to the west of the Parque Moret, are
the remains of a Roman aqueduct dating from the 1st century AD.
Under the Moors, Huelva was known as Ghelbah. They
used the port as a trading post for commerce with northern Africa.
Their imprint on today's city can be glimpsed in religious architecture
like that of the Iglesia de San Pedro, although most of Huelva's
Moorish inheritance was destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.
After the Reconquest, when Alfonso X recaptured
Huelva from the Moors, it came under the control of the kingdom
of Seville, followed by the dukes of Medina Sidonia. By the 15th
century, Huelva was established as a significant port, but it was
not until 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the New World
that it gained in status.
Columbus used local sailors for his historic voyage
and the increase in trade brought wealth to the whole region, although
it was later superceded by the ports of Seville and Cadiz. Huelva's
pride in its links with Columbus can be seen today, with streets
and monuments named after Columbus and the mariners who sailed with
him and its restoration of the Sanctuario de Nuestra Señora
Virgen de la Cinta, a chapel where Columbus is said to have prayed
before setting sail.
Huelva was declared provincial capital in 1833 and
by the end of the 19th century was undergoing a massive transformation
with the influx of foreign capital from mining interests. Its main
function as a maritime port became secondary to its industrial importance
as mining activities grew, based on the exploitation of the Río
Tinto mines by the Río Tinto Company and five other British
mining firms.
The mining companies changed the architectural face
of Huelva, building industrial structures like the wharfs in the
port used for unloading minerals, workshops and the railway. Culturally,
Huelva underwent a revival and cultivated a more cosmopolitan atmosphere
with the arrival of mainly British and German workers. This was
a time of great surplus wealth, which was lavished on elegant edifices
in the centre, such as the Gran Teatro with its French-influenced
architecture, the Casa Colón, the Círculo Mercantil
on Calle Rico just south of the Plaza de las Monjas, and the former
Conservatorio de Música, now the Clínica Sanz de Frutos,
on the same street.
The legacy of late 19th-century British architecture
still standing today includes the Muelle de Ríotinto, the
Estación de Sevilla, the Barrio Obrero and the Casa Colón.
One of the main streets in the centre is named after the German
businessman, Wilhem Sundheim, who was instrumental in the takeover
of the Río Tinto mines by a British consortium.
In the Cementario de la Soledad is the body of William
Martin, a supposed naval commander, known as 'the man who never
existed'. During the Second World War, the Allies wanted to distract
German intelligence from their planned landing in Sicily, ready
for the invasion of Italy, by pretending that a similar landing
would be taking place elsewhere. The corpse of 'William Martin'
was discovered by a fisherman on the beach of El Portil, near Huelva,
and had documents on him hinting at a supposed Allied landing in
Sardinia or Greece. The Allies' hope that the German spies operating
in Huelva at the time would believe the information and send it
back to Germany was successful.
Since the 1950s most of Huelva's wealth has come
from its flourishing petrochemical industry, established by Franco.
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