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Huelva City - Five Fascinating Facts

(Top left to right) Muelle de Rio Tinto, Monument to Discoverer Faith, Nuestra Señora de la Soledad Cemetery, Barrio de Reina Victoria, Muelle de las Carabelas, Monument to Discoverer Faith. © Michelle Chaplow
(Top left to right) Muelle de Rio Tinto, Monument to Discoverer Faith, (middle left to right) Nuestra Señora de la Soledad Cemetery, Barrio de Reina Victoria, (lower left to right) Muelle de las Carabelas, Monument to Discoverer Faith.

Huelva City - Six Fascinating Facts

By Fiona Flores Watson.

Huelva province has always been known more for the beaches in the surrounding area, than for the Huelva city itself. Known by the Phoenicians as Onuba, it has a long history, closely linked to the sea and nearby mineral riches, and apart from the less attractive industrial port area, has some interesting sights, although many monuments were destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. The city is closely associated with Columbus, who sailed to the Americas from nearby, and you can visit his favourite virgin in her chapel. In the nineteenth century, British mining companies brought an era of great wealth to the city. Today Huelva's main industry is petrochemicals, with fishing its second source of income.

The Barrio de Reina Victoria, otherwise known as the "Barrio Obrero" © Michelle Chaplow The Barrio de Reina Victoria, otherwise known as the "Barrio Obrero" © Michelle Chaplow
Huelva City - Fascinating Fact 1

The British engineers and miners who worked in the 19th and 20th centuries wanted to make themselves a home-from-home. So they built English-style houses complete with front gardens, right in the… More →

Huelva is imbued with the spirit of Cristobal Colon and his voyages to America. © Michelle Chaplow Huelva is imbued with the spirit of Cristobal Colon and his voyages to America. © Michelle Chaplow
Huelva City - Fascinating Fact 2

The whole of Huelva, both city and immediately surrounding area, is imbued with the spirit of Cristobal Colon and his voyages to America. You can visit the monastery in La Rabida where he stayed… More →

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Huelva City - Fascinating Fact 3

As well as building impressive new residential areas, theatres and railways (see Fact 1), the British Rio Tinto mine workers (see Fact 1), who lived in and near Huelva, had a profound and lasting… More →

American sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's 37-metre Colon Cubist statue. © Michelle Chaplow American sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's 37-metre Colon Cubist statue. © Michelle Chaplow
Huelva City - Fascinating Fact 4

Returning to the omnipresent theme of Sr Colon, visitors to Huelva will find a host of modern-day monuments to the revered explorer. American sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's 37-metre Cubist… More →

Platero y yo Platero y yo
Huelva City - Fascinating Fact 5

Juan Ramon Jimenez, author of the hugely popular Platero y yo, prolific poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1956, was born just outside Huelva. Controversially, he wrote erotic… More →

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Huelva City - Fascinating Fact 6

Within the  Nuestra Señora de la Soledad Cemetery in Huelva lies a grave with a curious history. The man buried there changed the course of the Second World War – even when he was already dead.… More →

The rich mineral wealth of Huelva.
The rich mineral wealth of Huelva.
Fascinating Facts