Moguer is a municipality and small city located in the province of Huelva, Andalusia, Spain. According to the 2022 census, it has a population of 22,623. Its surface area is 204 square kilometres (79 sq mi), and its population density is 106.36 per square kilometre (275.5/sq mi).
The present site of Moguer had been home to many human settlements since antiquity. Nonetheless, the founding of the present municipality is generally dated from the establishment of the Señorío de Moguer ("Seigneury of Moguer") in 1333. The Santa Clara Monastery and a Franciscan convent that later became the Corpus Christi Hospital were founded four years later. From the 1330s, the population grew rapidly, turning Moguer into an important town with a strong, economy based in agriculture, fishing, and trade through the town's river port. Moguer played an important role in the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, with Columbus receiving important support from the abbess of the Santa Clara Monastery, Inés Enríquez, the cleric Martín Sánchez and the landowner Juan Rodríguez Cabezudo. The Niño brothers played an important role in the voyage, including providing the caravel Niña. Upon the returning from the Americas, the first of Columbus's vows was fulfilled by spending a night in the church of the Santa Clara Monastery. Today, Moguer and nearby Palos de la Frontera are home to the lugares colombinos, a tourist route of places associated with undertaking that voyage.
Moguer's river port continued to be an important site for seafaring and trade, exporting the local wines and other merchandise to the Americas, Russia and other European countries. Viticulture remained the economic engine into the early 20th century, when the chemical plant at Huelva and, above all, the development of the cultivation of the garden strawberry drove a new period of economic development and demographic growth. As of 2008, 2,278 hectares (5,630 acres) in the municipality are devoted to growing strawberries,[1] 27.5 percent of the national total of 8,296 hectares (20,500 acres), making Moguer Spain's leading municipality in this crop.[2]
The municipality of Moguer is formed by the urban centres of Moguer and Mazagón, the agricultural zones with both irrigated and rain-fed crops, and forest areas composed of the Monte Público of the municipality of Moguer and of protected natural areas.
Besides being one of the lugares colombinos, Moguer is also known as the birthplace of poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and author of Platero y yo.
Moguer is in the southwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula, in the so-called Tierra Llana ("Flatland") of the province of Huelva. On the north it is bounded by the Río Tinto, the municipalities of Huelva, Niebla and San Juan del Puerto; on the south by the Atlantic Ocean and Palos de la Frontera; on the west by the Río Tinto and Palos de la Frontera; and on the east by Almonte and Lucena del Puerto.
The urban centre of Moguer is located at 37° 16′ N, 6° 50′ W, at an altitude of 51 metres (167 ft), 19 kilometres (12 mi) from the provincial capital Huelva, and 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the Andalusian capital Seville. It is very close to Palos de la Frontera, and 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the beaches of Mazagón; all of these are within the mancomunidad Moguer-Palos de la Frontera and the larger Comarca Metropolitana de Huelva. Its surface area is 204 square kilometres (79 sq mi).
The main access to Moguer is from the north by means of the Autovía A-49/E-1 by way of the autonomic route. It can also be reached by the national N-422 and the provincial from Palos de la Frontera, the autonomic A-494 from the municipality of Almonte, and the autonomic A-486 from Lucena del Puerto.
The urban centre of Moguer is accessed from the A-494 by the avenues Hermanos Niño, Quinto Centenario, de la Virgen, and de América and from the Carretera de la Marisma by the Calle de la Ribera.[3] The urban centre of Mazagón is accessed from the A-494 by the Avenida de los Conquistadores (west), and the Calle El Dorado, Avenida del Arroyo de la Miel, and Avenida de los Conquistadores (east).[4]
Moguer is located in sandy clay Pliocene–Quaternary land. It can be divided into three regions: countryside, wetlands or marsh, and coast. The Río Tinto and its marsh make up the predominant landscape of the northern part of the municipality. On the south are 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) of virgin beaches and the sand hills and gullies of the Arenas Gordas. The rest of the territory is the countryside, cut by the streams Galarín and Montemayor, tributaries of the Río Tinto; other streams are the Arroyo de Angorrilla, Arroyo de la Monjas, Cañada del Peral and Arroys de la Grulla in the Domingo Rubio estuary, and the Arroyo de las Madres in the Las Madres lagoon. In some places, lower strata have worn away, leaving curved outcroppings known as cabezos (from the Spanish cabeza, head).
Being located near the coast of the province of Huelva, Moguer has a Mediterranean climate (transitional between subtropical and temperate) with an Atlantic influence. Moguer is among the warmest and sunniest cities in Europe. The temperature regime is maritime, with an annual average of 19.2 °C (66.6 °F), and the city receives 2,984 hours of sun annually.[5]
July is the hottest month with some temperatures exceeding 40 °C (104 °F). January is the coolest, with lows of 7 °C (45 °F) and highs of 17 °C (63 °F).
Prior to 1333, the population was distributed among several different places within the current municipality. With the establishment of the seigneury in 1333, the population began to concentrate in the current urban center, rising to 5,000 and fluctuating around that number until the 20th century.
Between 1900 and 1970 the population of Moguer remained around 7,000–8,000. Since 1970 there has been a growth to the current 22.061 (2021, INE), the largest population in Moguer's history. Of the 22.061 habitantes, 11.059 are male (50,13%) and 11.002 female (49,87%).[6][7][8]
A detailed analysis of the demographics of Moguer can be found in the Sistema de Información Multiterritorial de Andalucía (S.I.M.A.).[9]
The origin of human settlement in Moguer is lost in the remoteness of history and is surrounded by legend, as is the case for all the lands near the mouth of the Río Tinto. The current municipality of Moguer was a focus of attraction for the people of the Iberian interior and of the eastern Mediterranean since ancient times, as evidenced by Neolithic, Phoenician and Roman archaeological remains.[10] Between the years 150 BCE – 114 BCE Hispano-Romans established industries along the river Urium (Tinto), a natural route for travel and commerce used by various cultures over the course of history. Originally Urium was a Roman town with a tower for defense, built roughly between the 1st century BCE and 2nd century CE. Remains of amphorae, coins, bricks, tegulae with potter's marks and a fragment of 2nd-century CE Terra sigillata (a type of decorated pottery) confirm the existence of several Roman settlements with the limits of the present-day municipality of Moguer.[10]
With the arrival of Muslims the farmstead of Mogauar or Mogur belonged to the Taifa of Niebla. Surviving buildings from this period include the Almohad Castle of Moguer, the underground reservoir which is under the parade ground, the fountain known as the Fuente de Pinete, the Fuente de Montemayor, and archaeological remains[10] of Arab settlements in the rural zones of Rendón, las Cacerías, and Manzote.
During the Reconquista, Moguer was conquered by the Order of Santiago around 1239–1240, along with other enclaves of historic Algarve, and annexed to Castile.
In 1333, the village of Moguer became the first seigneury in the area, granted by Alfonso XI of Castile to Alonso Jofré Tenorio, Staff Admiral (Almirante Mayor) of Castile.[11] Under this nobleman, Moguer became a prosperous town. Besides the existing Almohad castle, Moguer acquired the Monastery of Santa Clara and a Franciscan convent. On his death, the seigneury passed to his daughter María Tenorio, wife of Martín Femández Portocarrero, and later to their son Alonso Femández Portocarrero, to whose lineage it would remain connected. The Casa de Portocarrero enlarged the town with the construction of the 15th-century San Francisco Convent; the old Franciscan convent became the Corpus Christi Hospital, a hospital for the poor.
The House of Portocarrero were Grandees, wealthy upper nobility, with close connections to the royal court. In 1375 the Señorío de Moguer became a majorat (Spanish: mayorazgo). Like any feudal lords, the lords of Moguer exercised control over the municipal government. Moguer soon became a prominent Andalusian fishing town, thanks mainly to the Portocarrero's policy of attracting additional settlement.
The town of Moguer gained distinction for various services provided to the Crown by its successive lords. In 1369, Henry II of Castile granted it the title of Muy Leal ("Very Loyal"); in 1642, Philip IV of Spain designated Moguer a city, and gave its council the right to use the coat of arms of the Portocarrero; and in 1779, Charles III distinguished it again with the titles of Muy Noble and Muy Leal ("Very Noble" and "Very Loyal"). Because of this, Moguer is known as the "Very Noble and twice Very Loyal City" of Moguer.
The economy of Moguer in the 15th century was based in agriculture, fishing, and mercantile activities. in 1489 the Catholic Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand granted a seguro (?)[12] to ships arriving at the river port of Moguer from the Canary Islands, North Africa and Atlantic European countries. Beginning in the 15th century, Moguer had a loading wharf for loading and discharging merchandise, a carriageway, shipyards, and an alota that was, together with Huelva and Palos, among the most active on the Huelva coast.
Toward the end of the 15th century, the town had a population of about 5,000, and a city centre with several arterial roads, dominated by the Paris Church of Our Lady of Granada, the castle, the San Francisco convent and the Santa Clara monastery. There was much economic activity and the many ships visited the port. This was the situation of Moguer when it played a significant role in the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.[12]
Moguer provided some of the sailors for the voyage, as well as the caravel, Niña, built in Moguer around 1488 and apparently owned by the Niño brothers of Moguer. On several occasions, Columbus came to Moguer seeking help. Ultimately, he gained the important support of the Niño brothers; the cleric Martín Sánchez; the landowner Juan Rodríguez Cabezudo (who took custody of Columbus's son Diego while Columbus went on his first voyage); and Inés Enríquez, abbess of the Santa Clara Monastery and aunt of King Ferdinand.
The Catholic Monarchs had ordered the towns of the Andalusian coasts to provide assistance to Columbus[13] and by means of a commission di