El Rompido is a coastal borough in the municipality of

Cartaya Cartaya is a Spanish locality and municipality in the Province of Huelva, (autonomous community of Andalusia). In 2010 it had 18,415 inhabitants. Its surface area is 226.4 km2 and has a density of 81.34 people per km2. The present town of C ...

located in the

province of Huelva Huelva () is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by Portugal, the provinces of Badajoz, Seville, and Cádiz, and the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is Huelva. Its area is 10,1 ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

, Spain. Founded in the 16th century. El Rompido is situated by the mouth of the

Río Piedras Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

. It has 1,832 inhabitants and is 8 kilometres south of

History

Evidence of human settlement in El Rompido dates back the

paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

era at the mouth of the Río Piedras. In 1971, 208 pieces of quartzite thought to date back to the third to ninth millennium were discovered in El Rompido. There are indications that the area was used as a fishing settlement in the era of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

. Evidence of settlement in El Rompido during the Islamic presence in Spain from 711 until 1614 have not been found, however. Tourism is El Rompido's primary industry, having slowly been built up in the beginning in the 1960s, and a more recent, sharp upturn occurring in the second decade of the 21st-century.

Other information

El Rompido is home to Marismas del Río y La flecha-de Nueva Umbria Natural Area, a reserve in the Río Piedras marshlands given protective status in 1989. The reserve is home to a variety of

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

. In El Rompido there are a number of hotels, a town centre and two golf courses. Situated in

Andalucía Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

, neighbouring towns include

Lepe Lepe is a Spanish town in the province of Huelva, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is near the Portugal, Portuguese border. According to the 2009 census, the city has a population of 25,886 inhabitants ...

Punta Umbría Punta Umbría is a town and municipality in the province of Huelva, part of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is a fishing village located on the banks of the Rio Odiel river and across the water from the capital, Huelva. It is su ...

and

Ayamonte Ayamonte (; pt, Aiamonte) is a town and municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Huelva, Andalusia. It is located near the border with Portugal on the mouth of the Guadiana River. According to the 2015 census, the city had a population ...

. The economy also used to rely on fishing as it is on the coast, next to a spit flecha-de Nueva Umbria (English: Arrow of El Rompido) separated by the Río Piedras. Fishing was, for a long time, the key part of life in El Rompido with boats still docked on the beach today, primarily c

flatfish A flatfish is a member of the Ray-finned fish, ray-finned demersal fish order (biology), order Pleuronectiformes, also called the Heterosomata, sometimes classified as a suborder of Perciformes. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the ...

and

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

Almadraba Almadraba (from Andalusi Arabic ''almaḍraba,'' meaning 'the place to strike, also derived into pt, Almadrava) is an elaborate and ancient technique for trapping and catching Atlantic bluefin tuna (''Thunnus thynnus'') originally used by the Pho ...

tuna fishing attracted many Portuguese workers and people alike. On the last weekend of July the village celebrates the festival of the

Virgen del Carmen Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or Virgin of Carmel, is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order, particularly within the Catholic Church. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Car ...

, a festival commonly celebrated in southern

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. In the 1980s and 1990s the celebrations became so notorious in the Huelva area that upwards of 3,000 people would attend the festival. The figures seen back then have somewhat declined in the 2000s.

References

Populated places in the Province of Huelva {{andalusia-geo-stub