El Puerto de Santa María

El Puerto de Santa María drew the world's first surviving map of the world. In 1500, in this port of the Bay of Cádiz, the navigator Juan de la Cosa — who had sailed with Columbus as master of the Santa María — drew the celebrated Mappa Mundi that first shows the American coastline: the New World's earliest cartographic portrait, made in a town that was then the departure lounge of the Atlantic enterprise. Columbus himself lodged here; the merchant palaces of the "hundred palaces" era still line the streets in various states of nobility.

The town's modern fame is liquid and precise: El Puerto is one corner of the sherry triangle, its bodegas — Osborne's above all, whose black bull silhouette, born as brandy advertising, became the unofficial emblem of Spain on every highway ridge — ageing fino in cathedral-cool naves that welcome visitors year-round. Rafael Alberti, poet of the Generation of '27, was born here and sang the bay's light all his life; his foundation keeps the archive. The Plaza de Toros ranks among Spain's grandest rings, and the beaches of Valdelagrana and La Puntilla serve the summer republic. The concert record's register — bands, choirs, touring programmes — completes the town. A map of the world, a bull on the skyline, wine asleep in oak: El Puerto charted more than coastlines.