In the pretty, peaceful village of La Rábida, don’t miss this 14th- and 15th-century Franciscan monastery, visited several times by Columbus before his great voyage of discovery.
Here Columbus met Abbot Juan Pérez, who took up his cause and drummed up support for his far-fetched plans to discover new lands and in the process make Spain very rich. Within the monastery is a chapel with a 13th-century alabaster Virgin before which Columbus prayed, and a fresco-lined Mudéjar cloister, one of the few parts of the original structure to survive the 1755 earthquake. Fine early 20th-century frescoes by Huelvan cubist painter Daniel Vázquez Díaz detail Columbus' adventures.
