La Herradura held its 455 commemoration of the great shipwreck of a Spanish armada in the village’s bay. Armada, by the way, just means ‘a fleet of warships.’

This naval disaster in 1562 had greater proportional losses than fleet sent against England in 1588, known to English speakers as The Spanish Armada. A total of 25 out of the 28 galleys sank in a storm and some 5,000 people lost their lives.

The fleet was on its way to Málaga to relieve Spanish-held Oran, under siege by the Ottomans, and had taken shelter from a storm in the bay. Unfortunately, the wind veered and drove the ships against the headland.

This year’s commemoration included a visit by boat the the exact area of the sinkings. The vessel was the Boatdil-cruises catamaran, using the Marina del Este as the boarding point.

That was in the morning, and in the afternoon, participants met outside the village church, San José, where there is a mural dedicated to the naval disaster, when a crown of flowers was laid.

(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)