Destination Management Andalusia

Andalusia has been occupied by the Moors from 711 until 1492, which explains why this culture and their architecture and language influenced so deeply the Andalusia we know nowadays. The architectural style most representative of Andalusia is Mudejar style (a mixture of Arabic influences under the Catholic ruled empire). Many words of Spanish come from the Arab (all the name beginning by “al” have Arabic influence – an example is the Alhambra or Alcazar, meaning “fortress” in Arabic). These influences are mostly noticeable in Granada, the last city to have been taken back by the Catholics in the 15th century and last bastion of the Moorish kingdom. After the re-conquest, Andalusia also took an important part in the discovery of America. Indeed, this is from Seville, Cadiz and Huelva that all the boats going to the Americas have been launched, especially the boats of Christopher Columbus (buried in the Cathedral of Seville after resting in the convent close to Huelva in the last years of his life). Seville was the epicentre of Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries due to the fact that all the boats coming back from the New World had the obligation to stop in Seville to unload their precious products. Until 1950, Andalusia hardly changed respect to the way it was described in the middle of the 19th century by the English writer Richard Ford: “a piece of land put protected in a bottle for the antiquaries”, almost feudal, with the particularity of a strong and rigid social class. Nowadays, Andalusia is the first region of the world for the production of olive oil. Other products such as the fruits and vegetables (the strawberries from Huelva or the oranges from Seville are among the most representative), the excellent pork and Iberian hams and sausages, cheeses and wines are also very popular and world-widely famous products of Andalusia.

But Andalusia is not just agricultural anymore; several high speed ways have been constructed (especially for the 1992 Universal Exhibition taking place in Seville), now ultra modern buildings are competing with ancestral monuments like the Alhambra of Granada, the Mezquita of Cordoba or the Cathedral of Seville. Tourism and service sectors are also highly important in Andalusia and we can also be proud of being the location where the new Airbus was built and designed by local engineers. And although allying the old and the modern, Andalusian people have been able to keep their traditions, their love for the folklore, celebration and gastronomy, and still offering to the tourist their smile, hospitality and generosity.