El Rocio.
(From Wikipedia).
El Rocío is a village located 15 km from the municipality of Almonte, in the region of El Condado, province of Huelva, Andalusia (Spain). It is the site of an important Marian pilgrimage, the Romería del Rocío.
History
In 1768, Lieutenant Colonel Fernando Pérez de Guzmán and Intendant Pablo de Olavide sent a project to the Supreme Council of Castile to settle two leagues of the municipal district of Almonte, in a place known as El Rocío. The new settlement was to be called Guzmanópolis. This project was not carried out.
In the 1780s the Duke of Medina Sidonia and Alba, José Álvarez de Toledo Osorio, headed a new project to populate the area under the direction of Roque Díaz-Ángel del Castillo. He was advised by two residents of La Palma del Condado: Alonso de Orihuela and the master architect and surveyor Francisco Díaz Pinto. The first families settled in 1789.1
In 1799 the Rota Brotherhood of El Rocío built its brotherhood house in this hamlet.
The hamlet was abandoned in 1810, due to the French invasion.
In the mid-19th century, the hamlet of El Rocío had 35 huts. Between the areas known as El Real and El Acebuchal, other chapels were built: Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1844, Villamanrique de la Condesa in 1846, Pilas in 1851, Moguer in 1853 and La Palma del Condado in 1858. In 1855 a bullring was also built for bullfighting.
Population
The village has 1732 inhabitants, although during the Pentecost pilgrimage the number of visitors has reached a figure of approximately One Million people.
The term "panzorrino" refers to the people native to the village who have remained in the village.
In 2006 there were 2,182 private homes, 79 houses belonging to "hermandades rocieras", several hotels and a campsite. It also has services such as petrol stations, restaurants, banks and a specialised shop.
Hermitage
El Charco de la Boca, located next to the village of El Rocío, belonging to the Doñana National Park.
In the Ducal Archives of Medina Sidonia in Sanlúcar de Barrameda there is a boundary marker dating from 1335, which contains the first written reference to the hermitage of Santa María de las Rocinas.
Alfonso XI's Libro de la montería, dated between 1342 and 1350, devotes its last seven chapters to the hunting grounds of Andalusia. It mentions in the area around Niebla "a land that is said to be Las Rocinas" and adds that the best groves are those that are "out of a church that is said to be Sancta María de las Rocinas".
In 1598, a chaplaincy was established in the chapel, with the bequest of a Sevillian who had emigrated to Peru, called Baltasar Tercero.
The first time the Virgin is referred to in writing with the word "Rocío" is in a document of the Almonte Town Council dated 25 April 1653, which reads as follows:
"it will be right that a novena of sung masses be held to Our Lady of the Rocío, protection and remedy of this town [...] and to remedy our needs and give us her Rocío so that the harvest will be very plentiful."
The current chapel was built between 1964 and 1969 in the white regionalist style and was designed by the architects Alberto Balbontín de Orta and Antonio Delgado y Roig.
In 1973 the hermitage and its surroundings were classified by the government as a Paraje Pintoresco. This recognition, however, left the scope of protection undefined.
In 2006 the hermitage and the village were classified as an Asset of Cultural Interest, in the category of Historic Site.