El Rocio

The Parque Nacional de Doñana is one of Europe's most important wetland reserves and a major site for migrating birds. It is an immense area; the parque itself and surrounding parque natural or Entorno de Doñana (a protected buffer zone) amount to over 1,300 sq km in the provinces of Huelva, Sevilla and Cádiz.

A lot of people go on a pilgrimage to El Rocio. Those who believe in heaven and those who don't. A few hours after starting along the paths of Lower Andalusia, a unique form of relation is established. Differences disappear. Hearts open. This is the miracle of El Rocio.

The El Rocío pilgrimage is the most famous in the region, attracting nearly a million people from across Andalucia and the entire country, and beyond. Every Andalucian city, town and village has its own pilgrimages, for its patron saint, virgin or other much-loved local figure, but the El Rocio has cult status, and is the most important and most colourful.

Andalucia is famous for its pilgrimages or "romerías" - so called because pilgrims traditionally walked to Rome, and therefore became known as "romeros" - to popular shrines, around which fiestas are held.

This is a strange outpost of the Wild West, with wide, sandy streets lined with houses complete with broad verandas and wooden rails for tying up horses. It is famous for its annual Romería, the Rocío Pilgrimage at Pentecost when it is overflowing with a seething mass of a million pilgrims, either on foot or with horses and decorated carts.