Moguer

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 / 37.2754528; -6.8384861
Country	Spain
Autonomous community	Andalusia
Province	Huelva
Comarca	Metropolitan District of Huelva
Government
• Mayor	Gustavo Cuéllar Cruz (PSOE)
Area
• Total	204 km2 (79 sq mi)
Elevation	51 m (167 ft)
Population (January 2008)
• Total	21,209
• Density	100/km2 (270/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Moguereños
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	21800 - 21130 (Mazagón)
Official language(s)	Spanish
Website	www.aytomoguer.es

Moguer is a municipality and small city located in the province of Huelva, Andalusia, Spain. According to the 2013 census, it has a population of 21,209. Its surface area is 204 square kilometres (79 sq mi), and its population density is 103.97 per square kilometre (269.3/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, 27.5 percent of the national total of 8,296 hectares (20,500 acres), making Moguer Spain's leading municipality in this crop.