One of the main reasons I moved to Spain was to experience the culture, and visit all the beautiful places it has to offer. So whilst i've been here, I have spent time visiting nearby places and cities and seeing how it's different to English cities and towns. Not long ago me and my family drove to Coin to see what it was like. One of the great things about Spain is the beautiful scenery you get to view which is rare in England, and the drive there was especially beautiful as was the town itself. However I was particularly interested in it's history. 

The town was ruled by Moors and the Romans controlling and defining the town from 929 AD to 1485 when the Christians took control and invaded Coin. 

A certain Captain S. E. Cook of the Royal Navy visited Coín, along with Cártama and Alhaurín in 1829, and was mightily impressed. "These villages", he wrote, "are on rising ground above the river and in beauty of situation and cultivation cannot be excelled. They afford a specimen of the whole country when possessed by the Moors, being surrounded by gardens with orange, lemon and palm trees and abounding in all the fine as well as the more common fruits." To this day an orange tree features on Coín's coat of arms.

One of the most picturesque, yet sombre places in Coín is the shrine of Nuestra Señora de Fuensanta. The beautifully preserved chapel stands on top of a hill beside the ground which is used for the annual fair. The situation and views are magnificent, but the sombre note is struck by the now abandoned house which stands close by in a field. In 1893 it was the site of a brutal murder in which the local priest was shot by intruders who believed him to have hidden away a cache of money. The story of the crime and its aftermath were told in Bartolomé Abelenda's book, The Coín Crime.

Coín is a town which has only lately woken up to the realisation that it has a story to tell. In early 1999 the local Department of Culture embarked on a project to decorate some of the town walls with illustrated tiles depicting episodes in its history. Whether these will perpetuate the Columbus legend remains to be seen. What is unlikely is that it will remind the world that it was chosen by the BBC as the setting for its spectacularly unsuccessful soap opera, Eldorado.

Both of the above are orientated around England and its culture, although I believe that Eldorado still exists we were unable to locate the location of the film set. I feel coin was a very cultural setting with lots of interesting old buildings and statues. 

Kendal Welsby