Chucena

The origin of Chucena was closely related to the former settlements of Tejada la Vieja (Old Tejada). The village is located southeast of Huelva Province and borders Seville in a landscape of cereal cropland, vineyards and olive groves, oak and cork oak areas.
The first settlement was in the first millennium, and flourished until its demise in the mid-fourth century C. At that time it was a Phoenician culture and became a major centre of commerce and mining.

Subsequently the village belonged to the Romans and took the names of Chucena, Poder and Dehesa de Purchena Paternina. Eventually there was a shift towards a specialization in farming in what became Nuevo Tejado (New Tejada)and  named in Roman texts as Ituci. These lands were rural farms, known by the Romans as "villas. The splendour of Tejada continued in the early centuries of Muslim rule, which is now termed Thaliatha. Few traces remain from this period, especially the construction of a line of walls.

The progress of Chucena had been slow since the Middle Ages caused mainly by the depopulation of Tejada. There were better locations for settlements in the hills, for instance Alcores, which dominated the countryside. Defenses were better so it was inevitable that during this period there was a transfer of population to newly developed nuclei. Evidence offered by Pascual Madoz (1845) is a reminder that several graves belonging to the Moors had been discovered containing small treasures made for eighty pieces of silver.

A court was founded in 1253, during the reign of the Castilian king Alfonso X. Chucena was originally part of crown land and the City Council of Seville. The very first time Chucena and Alcala is cited in the Book of Seville it refers to the allotment of land made in that year. In Volume II of this important document, Chucena is named in the grant wherein the king makes the monastery of Iranzo.

In 1833, Chucena became dependent on the province of Huelva and the judicial district of La Palma del Condado, to the detriment of Seville, with whom it had strong economic and historical relations. Large estates that resulted from the processes of secularization and suppression of feudal tenure, by the Duque de Medinaceli, had plenty of pasture for livestock and plenty of oak and cork; such estates were Torralva, Genis and Garrucha.

Monuments

Templo de Nuestra Señora de la Estrella. (Parish Church of Our Lady of the Star.)
Hermitage of la Divina Pastora & San Isidro Labrador.
Baroque altarpiece altar, work of Julian Jimenez.
Christ of the "Enagüillas" Virgen del Rosario and attributed to Herrera the Elder.

Urbanism

Temple of Alcala de la Alameda.
Molino (mill) de la Hacienda de Alcalá de la Alameda.
Ayuntamiento. (Town Hall.)

Gastronomy

Embutidos. Sausages. Caldereta de Chucena.

Getting There

From Seville, take the motorway A49 to Huelva; direction Chucena-Fennel
Exit Huelva. Take Avenida de Cádiz. At the roundabout, take exit 3, continue along: H-30 heading to Seville - Huelva North. Head towards: Exit 10A - Seville. Continue along: H-31. Continue along: E-1 / A-49 Take the exit towards: Exit 34 - Chucena - Hinojos. Turn left: A-481 to Chucena.

Distances

To Huelva 55 km
To Villalba del Alcor 11 km
To Purchena 21 km
To Pilas 14 km
To Almonte 22 km
To Bollullos Par del Condado 18 km
To Villarrasa 23 km
To Hinojos 8 km