Sanlúcar de Barrameda

Sanlúcar de Barrameda, port city, Cádiz provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Andalusia, southwestern Spain. It lies on the south bank of the Guadalquivir River estuary, north of Cádiz city.

Barrameda derives from an Arabic word signifying “sandy gateway” and alludes to the sandbank that once obstructed the navigation of the Guadalquivir 60 miles (100 km) upstream to Sevilla, for which Sanlúcar served as the anteport in the days of Sevilla’s monopoly of colonial trade. Built on the site of Luciferi-Fani, a Roman settlement, the town was taken from the Moors in 1256 and given to the soldier Alonso Pérez de Guzmán (the Good), who was its first lord and builder of the first castle. The court of the dukes of Medina-Sidonia was later established there. From its port Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic in 1498 (his third voyage), and Ferdinand Magellan departed in 1519 to circumnavigate the world. The city’s 14th-century church and the palace of the dukes of Medina-Sidonia contain many art treasures. Henry VIII of England founded the Hospital of St. George in Sanlúcar in 1517 to service English sailors, who were frequent visitors to the city.

Sanlúcar produces the famous aromatic white wine of Andalusia known as Manzanilla. It is also a popular seaside resort on the Costa de la Luz (“Coast of Light”). Coto Doñana National Park, in the delta of the Guadalquivir River, is to the north of the city. The park, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994, is known for its biodiversity, and it is the habitat for various threatened bird species. Pop. (2011) mun., 67,232.