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3 unusual facts about Isla Mayor


Veta La Palma

Isla Mayor, as the nerve centre of the marshlands on the Guadalquivir, has seen a long process of transformation over time due to both the natural evolution caused by silting and the effects of human activity.

During the 1940s and 50s, the cultivation of rice became the main economic activity on the Isla Mayor del Guadalquivir, with rice fields occupying the northern half of the island (35,000 acres).

The first attempts to exploit the resources of the Isla Mayor date back to the 19th century, but it was not till the third decade of the 20th century that farming really began in the area, thanks to a comprehensive project carried between 1926 and 1928 by the British company Islas del Rio Guadalquivir Limited.


Instituto Nacional de Colonización

Many of the new villages were given a name related to the nearest river or even a name with an explicit reference to the Caudillo in order to cast a benevolent image of dictator Francisco Franco, like Llanos del Caudillo, Villafranco del Delta, a village in the Montsià comarca nowadays rechristened as El Poblenou del Delta or Isla Mayor near Seville, the former Villafranco del Guadalquivir.


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