The history of Huelva has been denoted by the heyday of navigation knowledge, whose improvements were led by local sailors in the Early Modern Period. Thanks to its bound with the sea, Huelva became the main character in the Discovery of America in 1492. The baroque style, together with Renaissance and Mudejar styles, left its traces on the religious buildings of the city. The Convent of La Merced is exceptionally remarkable among them due to both its location at the suburbs of the city and the starting date of its construction in 1606.
Nevertheless, the city would not have its present aspect until the Late Modern Period, with the sale of the Mines of Riotinto to the British. Even though Huelva becomes the capital city of the province of the same name after the 1833 territorial division of Spain, the city would not start its urban development until the arrival of the British. Then, Huelva is forced to turn its back to the sea and look at the mountains, giving place to isolated districts born from a discontinuous urban growth. Several Art-Deco houses are built along the streets which were the main ones during a crucial period of the history of Huelva – the mining exploitations of Riotinto and Tharsis reached their peak, the population tripled, and the new constructions gave the city some curious features with certain foreign, exotic influences which can hardly be seen in other Andalusian capital cities.
Thus, this constructing period has been highly relevant to the history of Huelva and very interesting due to its original characteristics and features.