t Greater flamingos fishing on a marsh in the Parque Nacional de Doñana at dusk
t Greater flamingos fishing on a marsh in the Parque Nacional de Doñana at dusk
Experience Huelva and Sevilla
Roman legions under Scipio Africanus founded Itálica, a formidable metropolis to the north of Seville, in the 3rd century BC. It became the first of many illustrious settlements. Later, the Moors held the region as part of the Emirate of al-Andalus. They peppered it with whitewashed, fortified towns, such as Carmona. After the Christian reconquista, Moorish traditions persisted through Mudéjar architecture, blending with Baroque and Renaissance in cities such as Osuna, which flourished in the 16th century.
Huelva province is inextricably bound up with another chapter in the history of world conquest – in 1492 Columbus set out on his epic voyage from Palos de la Frontera, which at the time was an important port.
Running along Huelva’s northern border is a ridge of mountains, of which the forested Sierra de Aracena forms part. These mountains are home to the large reserves of iron, copper and other elements, that have been mined by Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian firm, since 1873. The pollution caused by this industry was first protested against in 1888, and hundreds of people are thought to have died in this “year of shots”. But, today, Huelva and Sevilla are renowned for their natural beauty. In the Sierra Norte de Sevilla, goats forage, birds of prey fly overhead and streams gush through deep chasms. The Parque Nacional de Doñana preserves the dunes and marshlands near the mouth of the Guadalquivir to the south. Here, teeming bird life and wetland fauna thrive on the mudflats and shallow, saline waters.