Huelva's capital city is home to just one beach, El Espigon. It is a relatively young beach, in that it was 'born' after works on the Juan Carlos I dock in the seventies. The 3 kilometre beach is located on a sand spit that can be accessed only by driving across las Marismas del Odiel wetland area.

Huelva's bus station is in the centre opposite the tourist office, at Calle Doctor Rubio, 902 114 494. Most services are run by the Damas or the Avanza bus companies.

In Huelva, late-night bars are clustered along Calle Pablo Rada and on Calle Aragón to the west of the Plaza San Pedro. Bar Grial on Calle Ciudad de Aracena and Bar Paco Moreno on Paseo Independencia are great bars to have a drink and a tapa.

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 while waiting for his request for funding to be approved by Queen Isabella.

Huelva's bus station is at Calle Doctor Rubio (Tel: 959 25 69 00) providing with regular buses to Seville and resorts along the coast. There is a twice-daily service to Portugal and the Sierra de Aracena iin the north of Huelva province and one bus a day to Cádiz, Granada and Malaga.

Information about travel and tourism in Andalucia, Spain. The city of Huelva. Huelva Cinemas.

Huelva's provincial museum, housed in a modern building on the Avenida Sundheim, has an interesting archaeological collection, with objects from the megalithic sites of La Zarcita at Santa Bárbara de las Casas and El Pozuelo at Zalamea la Real; Tartessian treasure from the necropolis at La Joya; and Phoenician and Greek artefacts discovered in excavations within the city. Moorish artefacts are also on display.

The principal shopping streets are the narrow pedestrianized streets of Concepción, Palacio, Pérez Carasa and Berdigón and the roads leading off this main drag. Sara Merino has a good selection of dresses for special occasions.

Huelva's oldest parish church, the Iglesia de San Pedro, was constructed in the 15th and 16th centuries on a hilltop site of a mosque and next to the remains of a medieval fortress. It faces a pleasant palm tree-lined square, the Plaza San Pedro.

This whitewashed 15th-century chapel is famous for its associations with Christopher Columbus. Positioned on El Conquero hill, about 3 km north of the city centre, it commands a wonderful view of the Odiel wetlands. Like most sanctuaries and hermitages, it was originally built outside the town centre and used to be surrounded by fields and open countryside

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.

La Soledad hermitage on Calle Jesús de la Pasión was first erected in the early 1500s as a church for the neighbouring Hospital de la Misericordia, which was founded in 1516. From 1854 the hermitage was used as a school and a hospital.

The Iglesia de la Merced used to serve as the church of the neighbouring convent, the Convento de la Merced, and was designated a cathedral in 1953. It is one of the best examples of Baroque architecture in Huelva province, with a striking pink exterior and a bright white marble interior. It dominates the Plaza de la Merced, an elegant square lined with tall palm trees.

Huelva has always been known more for the beaches in the surrounding area, than for the 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.

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 effect on Spanish life - they introduced football to Spain.

Plaza de las Monjas can be described as the main square in the city of Huelva. Its origin is to be found during the foundation of the Convento de las Madres Agustinas; hence the name 'monjas' meaning 'nuns'. The convent was built in early sixteenth century, therefore suggesting the square was created in front of the convent's entrance during the first years of this century.

Atlantic Copper is a subsidiary of the North American group Freeport-McMoRan. It is the third largest copper smelter and refinery in Europe and leads domestic copper production, with a capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year, from one million tonnes of copper concentrate from different parts of the world.

Palacio Mora Claros is an early twentieth century palace built by, Moisés Serrano and José María Pérez Carasa, and was restored in 1997.

For 'foodies' one of the best places to visit is Mercado Municipal del Carmen, which Huelva's municipal covered market. Inside, it is lined with hundreds of stalls selling all types of produce, from fresh meat, fresh fish, fruit and vegetables, to local cheeses, wines, honey and handicrafts. It is usually buzzing with locals all buying in fresh goods.

The cemetery of Huelva was opened in 1928 and the project was initially designed by architect, Don Francisco Marín in 1907