The first time I visited Moguer was some twenty years ago. It was a sheer case of serendipity and I have returned many times as I find this small attractive whitewashed village pleasing and stimulating to the eye and mind.

Moguer used to be a busy port, just 20-km upstream from Huelva, on the left bank of the Rio Tinto. Together with Palos de la Frontera it was the place where most of the crew came from that sailed with Columbus to the Americas in 1492. Nowadays the villagers lead a far less exciting life but are privileged to call this Andalusian jewel, well situated on a hill, their home The beauty of Moguer was adequately expressed by one of it’s most famous sons, the poet and Nobel Prize winner Juan Ramón Jimenez (1881-1958. Juan Ramon is known as the poet of beauty and it is easy to see why when one reads; Tu corazon y el mio/son dos prados en flor/que une el arco iris. (Your heart and mine/are two flowering meadows/united by a rainbow). Yet, his most famous work, read by every Spanish child and translated into more then 30 languages, is a book called, “Platero y yo”, a narrative about his wanderings as a young child through the streets and fields of Moguer, accompanied by a little donkey called Platero.

Strolling through the streets of Moguer one sees many houses bearing plaques with quotations from the book, referring to that particular place so to someone familiar with the story it is literally like walking through the book. The writer spent several years in the U.S., Cuba and Puerto Rico, where he died in 1958 but shortly after, the remains of him and his wife Zenobia were transferred back to Spain where they found a final resting place in the lovely, well tended cemetery of Moguer. The house where Juan lived is nowadays a museum and was recently extensively restored. It gives you a good idea of the interior of the homes of the well to do in the 19th century and literature students from all over the Spanish speaking world make a pilgrimmage to this place. Another poetic son of Moguer is Francisco Garfias, winner in 1971 of the prestigious Premio Nacional de Literatura. However, it is not only prize-winning bards that have a way with words down here. What to say of the dirtiest of tramps I ever saw, walking upright into a cafeteria and, after having poised himself on top of a barstool, addressed the man behind the bar as follows: “My good man, I wonder if you would be so kind as to supply me with a cup of coffee although due to some temporarily financial problems I cannot pay for it right now.”

The final proof that Moguer is a fertile breeding ground for poetic eloquence I found in Maria Garrida whom I met in 1989 on my first visit to the parochial church, of whose tower Juan Ramon once said that; “Seen from nearby it looks like the Giralda seen from afar.” A spright 78 year old then, Maria had the liveliest pair of blue eyes I have ever seen in someone that age and she recited poems for me, nearly non-stop, during fifteen minutes. The coincidence that her father had been born in the same year and on the same day as Juan Ramon Jimenez might have been instrumental in the fact that she had written poems all her life, she told me. “Oh, my father could sing from his chest straight up to heaven and he had a face as refined as our Lord.” This was said while we were standing under a huge crucifix while she pointed a rheumatic finger at the finely chiselled face of Jesus.

My last visit took place in december last year and I was pleased that Moguer had not suffered too much from the onslaught of tourism. Nowadays it has a population of 18.500 and most of the labour force is employed in the agrarian sector although a timid start has been made in the real estate sector.

Since the vine pest destroyed most of the vineyards in 1906 strawberries are now the biggest export item. I paid a visit to the graveyard where a guide was busy explaining the life and times of Juan Ramon to a group of Spanish’pensionados’ that stood desinterested around the grave of the poet. Opposite the graveyard is a pleasant little park where I consumed some food but after a while two gardeners earnestly asked me to remove myself from the premises as the park was being shut for the siesta!

Architectonically speaking Moguer has some well preserved monuments and the town hall, which dates from the 18th century, is a prime example of the Andalusian Neo Classical style and was featured on the old 2000 peseta bank notes. It is a two-storey building with 5 arches on each floor, connected by marble Doric and Ionic columns. Worth while visiting is the Sta. Clara Monastery whose construction started way back in the 14th century. Columbus visited this building on various occasions and kept up a correspondence with its abbess. There are a few modest hostels and furthermore there is an ample choice of decent eateries. My favourite through the years has been Meson El Lobito, a converted bodega with a huge open fire on which the nicest kebabs I ever tasted are prepared. During my last visit the place had been cleaned up, i.e. cobwebs between rafters and ceilings have been removed and the walls are now a near clinical white but luckily the overall atmosphere of a typical Spanish bodega has been preserved and the food was as good as ever.

Moguer has an excellent tourist office situated within the castle walls at the Calle Castillo and a good place to stay the night is at the hostal Pedro Alonso Niño at the calle Pedro Alonso Niño, just behind the main thoroughfare.