SAN LUCAR (or SANLO'

See also:

• CAR (Late Lat. carra)

CAR DE BARRAMEDA)  , a fortified seaport of southern Spain, in the province of Cadiz; 27 M. by sea from Cadiz, on the left bank of the Guadalquivir estuary, and on the Puerto de Santa Maria-San Lucar and Jerez de la Frontera-Bonanza railways . Pop . (1900) 23,883 . The town is divided into two parts, Alta (" upper ") and Baja (" lower "); for it is built partly on the flat foreshore, partly on the rising ground to the south . The upper part is the older; it culminates in the ruins of a Moorish citadel . On the outskirts are many villas surrounded by pine, palm and orange groves, and often occupied in summer by families from Seville, who come to San Lucar for the excellent sea-bathing . The 14th-century church and the palace of the dukes of Medina Sidonia contain many valuable pictures . The hospital of St George was established by Henry VIII. of England in 1517 for English sailors . The Guadalquivir estuary is deep and sheltered, and lighted by four lighthouses . Bonanza, 2 M. by rail up the river, and on the same bank, is the headquarters of the shipping and fishing trades . It is named after a chapel dedicated here by the South American Company of Seville to the Virgin of Fair Weather (Virgen de la Bonanza) . The fisheries and agricultural trade of San Lucar are considerable; there are flour mills in the town and a dynamite factory among the surrounding sandhills .

Coal is imported from Great Britain, sulphur from France . The imports include sherry, manzanilla and other wines, salt, oats and fruit . Inscriptions: and ruins prove that San Lucar and Bonanza were Roman settlements, though the original names are unknown . San Lucar was captured from the Moors in 1264, after an occupation lasting more than five and a half centuries . After 1492 it became an important centre of trade with America . From this port Columbus sailed across the Atlantic in 1498, and Magellan started in 1519 to circumnavigate the world .