Moguer | |
|---|---|
Municipality and city | |
 Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Granada | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
  Moguer Location in Andalusia | |
| Coordinates: 37°16′31.63″N 6°50′18.55″W / 37.2754528°N 6.8384861°W | |
| Country |  Spain |
| Autonomous community |  Andalusia |
| Province | Huelva |
| Comarca | Metropolitan District of Huelva |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Gustavo Cuéllar Cruz (PSOE–A) |
| Area | |
• Total | 204 km2 (79 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 51 m (167 ft) |
| Demonym | Moguereños |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 21800 - 21130 (Mazagón) |
| Official language(s) | Spanish |
| Website | www |
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.
- ^ "Datos Agrícolas de Moguer". www.juntadeandalucia.es (S.I.M.A.). Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
- ^ "En 2006 un total de 2.691 Has. de fresón de las 8.296 Has. de toda España" (PDF). Ministerio de Agricultura y Pesca (estadísticas). Retrieved 2009-01-21.[permanent dead link]