“Do you think Huelva is an ugly city?” guide, Fran, asks me in a hopeful tone, as we wander through its narrow lanes to find a restaurant for lunch. I don’t tell him that, during my first visit, I thought this city, around an hour’s drive south west of Seville, was just one big industrial estate as I passed through its outskirts to a nearby beach town.
“Absolutely not,” I reassure him as if he’s just asked me if his outfit makes him look frumpy. “It’s certainly no Seville, but there are pockets of beauty.”
I’m not lying. The views across the wetlands that sprawl from the city’s western fringes – best seen from the terraces of a pretty whitewashed church on a hill (Santuario De Nuestra Señora de la Cinta) that Christopher Columbus is said to have visited after a difficult day at sea – are truly spectacular.
Shorts
With binoculars you can see flamingos and spoonbills in nearby Odiel Marshes Nature Reserve.The architecture is equally captivating: there’s a Rationalist petrol station in the city centre that’s been designated a national monument for its unique style, and the city’s most recognisable hotel, NH Luz Huelva, has a 1960s Modernist facade painted in a mustard shade that’s offset by the blue sky.
