The townsfolk were actively involved in crewing the many
voyages to the newly-discovered Americas that set sail
from this coast. Today this is a community in which history
and culture are very much alive in the present. Its peaceful
existence, as a maritime town, is what preserves its charm.
Apart from its possible origins in the remote times of
the Phoenicians and in the historical reality, not fully
understood, of other eras, El Rompido was actually founded
under an entirely different name, San Miguel de
Arca de Buey. This was one of many examples of a process of repopulation
during the middle of the 15th century in the area known
as la Baja (lower) Andalucía (the area covered by
the provinces of Huelva, Seville and Cádiz). During
this period many ‘new towns’ appeared in an
initiative spearheaded by the monarchy, town councils,
or the aristocracy in their respective territories, to
revitalize the areas emptied by the expulsion of the Muslim
population.
The founding charter of San Miguel de Arca de Buey was
drawn up on 6 April 1458 by order of Álvaro de Zúñiga.
The origin of the new settlers is unknown, although it
is believed they would have arrived from the north of Spain
and from Portugal.
The years of 1510 to 1534 were an era of crisis for all
of the people under the Marques of Gibraleón. In
San Miguel the population fell by 31 per cent, due, above
all, to the siren song of the new American territories
influencing the neighbours in nearby Huelva, even though
a succession of poor harvests and epidemics also added
their grain of sand.
But from 1534 to 1637 the population rose again and in
all of the province – barring San Miguel. The town
was sacked many times, as the continuous and highly profitable
expeditions loaded with riches that returned from the Americas
to the Andalucían ports also attracted the attention
of pirates, who were the sailors’ nightmare and would
attack undefended towns and villages, even cities such
as Cádiz and Gibraltar.
It was for this that king Felipe II ordered the organization
of a defence for the coastline with the construction of
fortifications, one in Punta Umbría and another
next to the Laguna del Portil. He also wanted to build
more in other positions, including San Miguel de
Arca de Buey.
Nevertheless on 10 August 1577 Luis Bravo Laguna recommended
that the fort of San Miguel be repaired, adding a torrejoncillo
(castellated tower) to serve both as a lighthouse
and to communicate with other towers along the coast. The
sackings continued, further causing the depopulation of
San Miguel and leading to a new charter to repopulate
the village in 1597. Despite these brave attempts to fortify
the village, in 1630 the inhabitants abandoned the village
completely.
 It
wasn’t until January 1651, when Cartaya took possession
of San Miguel, on exactly the first of January, under powers
given to the Duque de Bejar as magistrate and chief justice
of Gibraleón, that the village of San Miguel de
Arca de Buey passed into the control of his title.
The final misfortune to strike the area was the earthquake
which in 1755 destroyed all of the church, with its tower,
El Faro, left as the most representative monument to the
original building. Constructed in 1861 in the industrial
style of the 19th century, and declared of local interest,
it was replaced by another lighthouse in the middle of
the 1970s. The Dehesa (pastoral area) of San Miguel, where
El Rompido now sits, is catalogued by the Diputación
Provincial as a zone of ongoing archeological excavation.
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About
el Rompido
