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The Chruch of Santo Domingo
de Guzmán in Lepe |
By Jo Williams
This small agricultural market town is just south of the A-49 Huelva-Portugal motorway. Until the late 70s its economy was based on fishing but Lepe is now one of the wealthiest villages in the region thanks to its intensive farming of strawberries, which are exported all over Europe.
It is also famous for being the subject of innumerable Spanish ‘Irishman’ jokes.
Worth visiting in the village is the 14 th-century Iglesia de Santo Domingo de Guzmán built in the Mudéjar style. It houses the Lepe’s patron saint, the Virgen de la Bella (Virgin of Beauty). Just outside the village, off the road to El Terrón, is the Ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Bella, a 14th-century hermitage dedicated to the Virgin. On the second Saturday in May there is a pilgrimage from Lepe to the hermitage, where the figure of the Virgen de la Bella is carried from the Iglesia de Santo Domingo to the Ermita.
 Halfway between La Antilla and El Terrón is the Torre Almenera del Catalan, a 16th-century lookout tower built under Felipe II to warn of an impending invasion by Berber pirates. You can climb the tower for great views of a nature reserve, the Paraje Natural Marismas del Río Piedras y la Flecha de El Rompido.
Lepe’s main beach is La Antilla, 5km south of Lepe.
Located 5km northeast of La Antilla and 5km south of Lepe is the small fishing port of El Terrón. It has fine views across to El Rompido and the a nature reserve of the Marismas del Río Piedras. At El Terron is worth visiting the environmentally educational ‘Aula Marina de El Terrón’ (El Terrón Marine Centre)
Several of Lepe’s former inhabitants played an important part in Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Americas. The sailor Rodrigo de Triana was the first to sight the coast of the Americas, while Juan Díaz de Solís discovered Río de la Plata. The preparations by de Solís for the journey took place in nearby El Terrón.
Leperos are proud also of the fact that their wines, which were exported to England in the Middle Ages, were mentioned in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.
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