El Rompido
| Cartaya Municipality: El Rompido | |||
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 View from the Rio Piedras over the town
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| coat of arms | Map of Spain | ||
 Help on coat of arms |
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| Basic data | |||
| Autonomous Community : | Andalusia | ||
| Province : | Huelva | ||
| Comarca : | Costa Occidental de Huelva | ||
| Coordinates | 37 ° 13 ′ N , 7 ° 8 ′ W | ||
| Height : | 10 msnm | ||
| Residents : | 1,737 (2011) INE | ||
| Postal code : | 21459 | ||
| Area code: | 21021000200 | ||
| administration | |||
| Mayor : | Juan Polo | ||
El Rompido is a place at the mouth of the Río Piedras in the Atlantic Ocean, about 20 kilometers as the crow flies west-southwest of the city of Huelva . The place belongs to the municipality of Cartaya .
Originally, El Rompido was a small fishing port with two lighthouses, one of which was built in the 19th century. From the 1980s on, tourism shaped local life and became a determining economic factor.
geography
The dynamic processes between the sea and the estuary created a remarkable landscape formation on this section of the compensation coast from Lepe to Cartaya. To the south of the village, on the other side of the river, there is an extensive spit with original dune vegetation and a wide, fine sandy beach: The Flecha del Rompido . It can only be reached by ferry or on foot from La Antilla , a good 5 km to the west ; therefore there are wide, little touched stretches of beach. Together with the tidal marshes of the Marismas de San Miguel on this side of the river, the Flecha forms a coherent nature reserve.
Río Piedras and Flecha del Rompido
Riverside dune landscape on the Flecha del Rompido
Seaside dune landscape on the Flecha del Rompido
View from the nature reserve from the west of the place
Marismas San Miguel
history
Finds in the vicinity show human settlement at the mouth of the Río Piedras since the Paleolithic . In 1971, 208 quartzite workpieces from the 9th to 3rd millennium BC were found at a site on the northern bank of the river . The hunters, gatherers and fishermen of that era found an environment with rich resources to survive.
A kiln from Roman times was found in the pastures of San Miguel. It was used to burn amphorae , in which food was presumably salted. It is an indication of the existence of a Roman settlement where fish was processed.
There is no knowledge of the local conditions during Islamic rule .
In 1262 Alfonso X conquered the Muslim city of Libla , today's Niebla , and immediately afterwards the entire surrounding region. In the 15th century the region experienced a heyday. The Marqués of Gibraleón used privileges and tax breaks to attract settlers. The places Cartaya, Sanlucar de Guadiana , and in 1458 San Miguel Arca de Buey were created at the location of today's old lighthouse of El Rompido. The castle Castillo de San Miguel and the parish church were built on the highest point of the hill, the current location of the Hotel Fuerte del Rompido . Your cemetery was recently discovered during excavations. Together with the two lighthouses that were built under Philip II at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, the castle monitored the entrance to the river and thus the access to the ports of Cartaya and Lepe.
The population of San Miguel suffered from frequent raids by Turkish and Berber pirates who ravaged this coast. The place was looted several times, so that the inhabitants gradually moved away. In 1597 the Marquis Don Francisco Lopez de Zuniga Gibraleón y Sotomayor again advertised with privileges in order to win new settlers for the almost deserted place - in vain. Around 1630 nobody lived there permanently. In 1651 the bailiff ( Corregidor ) of Gibraleón, Don José de Hermosilla, established the depopulation. The nearest city, Cartaya, then appropriated the area of the abandoned coastal community.
The town hall of San Miguel stood until 1681. The parish church and the last remaining houses finally fell victim to the earthquake of 1755 . The bells and some pictures from the church appear to have been taken from the churches of Cartaya and Aljaraque . The ruins of the castle survived into the 19th century. The small lighthouse was built with part of the stones in 1861. The last remains of the castle were destroyed for the construction of the Fuerte del Rompido hotel . No visible trace of the old town of San Miguel has survived to this day.
At the end of the nineteenth century, some fishermen and their huts settled around the lighthouse; the fishing village emerged, which lasted until the advent of tourism in the 1970s.
economy
tourism
The first visitors appeared on site around 1960; From the 1970s on, tourism began on a significant scale. These visitors integrated themselves into the family environment of the place. Later the place changed its character; inland and to the east, the place expanded and became a semi-urban settlement typical of tourism, an urbanización . At the beginning of the 21st century, the place was fundamentally modernized. Four luxury hotels and several large golf courses were created.
Fishing
Only small fishing boats can moor at the small fishing port with a draft of a good one meter. Catches from trawl fisheries, especially flatfish and shrimp, are landed .
Typical festive days
On the last weekend in July, the place celebrates the festival in honor of the Virgen del Carmen , the Lady on Mount Carmel . With the image of the saint, fishermen and sailors go on a ship procession on the river. They offer flowers in her honor, which they sprinkle in the water, as thanks that it provides their livelihood. Numerous tourists on the bank marvel at the procession. In the 1980s and 1990s, the festival became so popular with the youth of the entire province of Huelva that up to 3,000 visitors flocked to the small fishing port. In the years since 2000, the rush has decreased somewhat, and the festival has regained some of its traditional, familiar character.
Individual evidence
- ^ David López Viera: Breve historia de El Rompido , accessed on May 16, 2012. The entire section follows this presentation
- ↑ Puerto pesquera de El Rompido ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on May 16, 2012
Web links
- Information from Cartaya City Council on El Rompido