Logbook · 11 places

What to see and do in El Puerto de Santa María

What to see and do in El Puerto de Santa María (Bahía de Cádiz, Cádiz): 11 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 1 Curiosities · 3 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of El Puerto de Santa María

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Spain › Andalusia › Cádiz › Bahía de Cádiz › El Puerto de Santa María

What to see and do in El Puerto de Santa María

El Puerto de Santa María
Village
El Puerto de Santa María is a city in the Bay of Cádiz, at the mouth of the Guadalete, with 89,983 inhabitants; it is the sixth most populous municipality in the province and forms, together with Cádiz, Jerez, San Fernando, Chiclana, Puerto Real and Rota, the Bay Commonwealth (Mancomunidad de la Bahía). According to legend, it was founded by the Athenian king Menestheus on his return from Troy; the present-day city, however, was moved to its current site in Roman times as Portus Gaditanus, around 19 BC, promoted by Lucius Cornelius Balbus the Younger. Conquered by Alfonso X in 1260 and renamed Santa María del Puerto, it received a founding charter in 1281 as 'Gran Puerto de Santa María'. It is known as 'the city of a hundred palaces' for the houses built in the 17th-18th centuries by merchants returning from the Indies, many of them now in ruins.
Castle of San Marcos
Monument
A church and fortress built around 1264 on the foundations of a former mosque, by order of Alfonso X the Wise after the conquest of the city, in honour of the Virgin and for its conversion to Christian worship; he reinforced its foundations with remains from a nearby Roman building and equipped it with four towers, two hexagonal and two quadrangular, whose ground floor served as the main chapel to the Virgen de los Milagros. The qibla wall, where the mihrab stood, and Almohad features in its construction are still preserved. It later served as a defence against new North African invasions and belonged to the House of Medinaceli from 1306. Declared a historic-artistic monument in 1920, it was closed from 1868 until its restoration around the 1940s.
Iglesia Mayor Prioral
Monument
The Iglesia Mayor Prioral, a minor basilica of El Puerto de Santa María, stands on Plaza de España, next to the chapel of la Aurora, and holds the image of the Virgen de los Milagros, patron saint of the city. Its construction is documented from 1486, promoted by the Dukes of Medinaceli, and it was built with sandstone from the Sierra de San Cristóbal, the same stone as Seville Cathedral. An earthquake in 1636 brought down the main nave, forcing the rebuilding of the church over much of the 17th century, with new chapels and ribbed vaults. From that period dates the Puerta del Sol, a façade in the form of a plateresque altarpiece with the image of the patron saint above the Castillo de San Marcos. It also holds a Mexican silver altarpiece from 1682.
Primer mapa de América
Curiosity
The pilot and cartographer Juan de la Cosa produced in El Puerto de Santa María, around the year 1500, the first known map depicting the American continent.
Bodegas de El Puerto de Santa María
Food and drink
Home to historic wineries of the Jerez region such as Osborne, Terry or Gutiérrez Colosía, with an Urban Wine and Brandy Route running through the historic centre. Joining them are other wineries such as Caballero, 501, and Grant y Obregón, dedicated to producing fine wine of the Jerez-Xérès-Sherry designation of origin, of great quality and international prestige.
Monasterio de la Victoria (El Puerto de Santa María)
Monument
A former monastery later converted into a prison, the well-known Penal de El Puerto.
Convento de San Francisco (El Puerto de Santa María)
Monument
A 16th-century convent built at the height of the city's Atlantic expansion.
Casas-palacio de Cargadores a Indias
Monument
Mansions of merchants enriched by trade with the Americas, built between the 17th and 18th centuries, among them the Palacio Álvarez-Cuevas, the Palacio de Araníbar and the Casa Vizarrón; they earned the city the nickname 'the City of the Hundred Palaces.'
El Puerto de Santa María cambia de nombre
Historical milestone
In 1260 Alfonso X the Wise conquered the city, then called Alcanatif in Arabic, and gave it the name El Puerto de Santa María. In 1281 it received a charter of privilege granting it municipal independence.
Cristóbal Colón en El Puerto de Santa María
Historical milestone
Between 1483 and 1486 Christopher Columbus resided in the city seeking the support of the Dukes of Medinaceli for his plan to sail to the Indies.
Yacimiento de Doña Blanca
Historical milestone
A Phoenician settlement from the 9th-8th centuries BC located within the municipal term of El Puerto de Santa María, one of the most important pieces of evidence of Phoenician colonization of the Bay of Cádiz.