The Muelle de Riotinto was restored in 2003 by the Huelva Town Hall.
Although most of Huelva's historic buildings suffered
badly in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, several pre-18th-century churches
escaped destruction or were successfully restored. The most famous
of these is the Sanctuario de Nuestra Señora
la Virgen de la Cinta, with its links to Columbus, while the
oldest is the Iglesia de San Pedro.
A stroll around the centre will reveal those monuments
that were erected in response to the explosion of wealth in Huelva,
injected into the local economy from the exploitation of the mines
north of the city. This peaked in the late 19th-century and early
20th-century. In 1911 the art-nouveau Conservatorio
de Música was inaugurated, now the Clínica Sanz
de Frutos, on Calle Rico. Just round the corner on Calle Vásquez
López is the Gran Teatro, with a magnificent neo-classical
façade and ornate interior. This dates from 1923, when Huelva's
cultural life had a big boost from foreign capital. North of the
centre is the neo-Moorish Plaza de Toros, completed
in the early 20th century, whose design imitates that of Las Ventas
bullring in Madrid.
Industrial architecture from this mining boom includes
the various quays in the port area constructed by foreign mining
companies for loading their minerals onto ships. Still standing
- although somewhat dilapidated - are the Muelle
de Riotinto, Muelle de Tharsis (1871) and Muelle de Norte (1908).
The impressive neo-Moorish Estación de Sevilla
was built by the British in 1880 along with the railway used by
the mining companies.
A huge monument of Christopher Columbus, the Monumento
a Colón, was inaugurated in 1929 and is symbolically
situated at the Punta de Sebo, south of the centre, overlooking
the confluence of the Odiel and Tinto rivers.
BARRIO OBRERO
The Barrio de Reina Victoria, otherwise known as
the "Barrio Obrero" (Workers' District), is a
testament to its name: an example of a Victorian English suburb
superimposed onto an Andalucian landscape. Situated at the eastern
end of Alameda Sundheim, a short walk from the centre, it's worth
a visit for its peculiar mix of Victorian colonial architecture
and bright primary colours that the current occupiers have used
to enliven their dormer windows and front doors.
The Barrio de Reina Victoria
The Rio Tinto Company started building the district
in 1916 to house its British workers and, like the Barrio Bellavista
in Río Tinto, it seems like a colonial outpost of the British
Empire. The British architect RH Morgan, who helped design the area,
was famous for creating buildings in his country's colonial architectural
style. The two other architects working on the project were from
Huelva, Aguado and Pérez Carasa, and the houses retain some
Spanish touches, like the whitewashed walls of the houses.
This area has houses and bungalows laid out on a
rectilinear grid of streets, unimaginatively named after letters
of the alphabet, and a distinctively British suburban atmosphere.
The current inhabitants are the descendants of the mining company
employees. In 2002 the Barrio was declared a "Site of Historical
Interest".
CASA COLÓN
 |
"Casa Colón" (Columbus House)
|
A symbol of British power in late 19th-century Huelva,
the Casa Colón is the grandest of all the buildings constructed
by the city's bourgeoisie around the same time. It is an imposing
presence at the beginning of the Alameda Sundheim, with a terracotta
façade and ornate wrought-iron balconies.
"Casa Colón" (Columbus
House) was inaugurated as the Gran Hotel Colón in 1883, ready
to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America in
1892. In the late 19th century Huelva was anxious to create a suitably
luxurious hotel for receiving its increasing numbers of foreign
visitors interested in investing in the mining industry, so the
Huelva Hotel Company was born in 1881. It commissioned the architect
José Pérez Santamaría to design the building.
Unfortunately it was not successful as a hotel so
was sold shortly afterwards to the Río Tinto Company who
used it for offices and housing their mining management staff. One
section on the northern side was used as a social club, with a dancehall,
library and billiards hall, with a tennis court outside.
The building consists of four individual sections
around a central courtyard with elegant gardens and a fountain.
The former northern section has been replaced by a modern exhibition
and conference centre, the site of the major Latin American Film
Festival in November.
Back to top
|
