Final Field Program - University of Virginia

CAD19 HUELVA (PALOS DE LA FRONTERA AND LA RABIDA) (0830-1930 Tuesday, 07 September)
Minimum 40/Maximum 45 (PRICE: $139) PRE-SALE ONLY
This tour will take you 3½ hours from Cádiz to Huelva for a visit to La Rábida Monastery, a Franciscan
monastery in the town of Palos de la Frontera. The monastery of La Rábida has been Franciscan property since
the 13 th century. The first Christian building on the site was constructed over a small pre-existing Almohad
building that lends its name (rábida or rápita means ―watchtower‖ in Arabic) to the present monastery. The
Franciscans have held great influence in the region ever since. The buildings standing on the site today were
erected in stages in the late 14 th century and the early 15 th century. The monastery, and the church associated with
it, display elements of Gothic and Moorish revival architecture; their walls are decorated with frescos by the 20 th
century Spanish artist, Daniel Vázquez Diaz (1882-1969). There is also a cloister and a museum, where
numerous relics of the discovery of America are displayed.
Christopher Columbus stayed at the monastery two years before his famous first voyage after learning that King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had rejected his request for outfitting an expedition in search of the Indies. With
the intervention of the prior of La Rábida and the confessor to Isabella, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, he was
able to have his proposal heard. The monastery was declared a Spanish National Monument in 1856.
Next, visit Palos de la Frontera. Palos was officially founded in 1322, when the town was granted to Alonso
Carro and his wife Berenguela Gómez by Alfonso XI of Castile, although the town may have been occupied
during earlier centuries by Paleolithic, Tartessian, Roman, Visigothic and Muslim inhabitants. Palos’ name is
derived from the Latin word palus (―lagoon‖), a reference to the Mar Menor. It acquired its ―surname‖ as Palos
de la Frontera in May 1642. Palos’ Golden Age is considered to have occurred in the 15 th century (especially
between 1470-1479), when it increased its population to 2,500 inhabitants and its economy, based on fishing and
seafaring expeditions to Guinea, flourished. Palos took advantage of the War of the Castilian Succession, which
became a war between Castile and Portugal, to challenge Portuguese domination of the Atlantic trade. Castilian
naval forces always included natives of Palos, who were considered navigational experts. Nevertheless, the war
ended in defeat for the Castilian forces, and Ferdinand and Isabella, in the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479) gave up all
rights to Atlantic and African lands and seas, with the exception of the Canary Islands, which remained Castilian.
Columbus departed from Palos on August 3, 1492, with three boats—the Pinta, Niña, and Santa María. On board
were Christopher Columbus and the Pinzón Brothers, who were natives of Palos. Palos played a pivotal role in
the settlement and Christianization of the New World in succeeding centuries. In addition, La Rábida played a
central role in the Christian evangelization of the Americas. Please note: Lunch is included.
CAD20 SEVILLE: TORRE DEL ORO, ARCHIVO DE INDIAS AND MAESTRANZA BULLRING (0900-
1700 Tuesday, 07 September) Minimum 30/Maximum 50 (PRICE: $149) PRE-SALE ONLY
[FDP: OPERE]
Travel approximately two hours to Seville and begin your tour with a visit to the Torre del Oro, a dodecagonal
military watchtower built by the Berbers during the Almohad dynasty in order to control access to Seville via the
Guadalquivir river. Constructed in the first third of the 13th century, the tower served as a prison during the
Middle Ages and as a secure enclosure for the protection of precious metals periodically brought by the fleet of
the Indies, another possible origin for the tower’s name.
Next, visit the Archivo General de Indias (―General Archive of the Indies‖), housed in the ancient merchants’
exchange, known as the Casa Lonja de Mercaderes. This is the document repository of extremely valuable
archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and the Philippines. The
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Spain Field Program – page 8