Puerto Real (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpweɾto reˈal]) is a municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Cádiz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia.

Puerto Real boasts public squares and broad streets; it also has a town-hall building and a 16th-century church, which was constructed in several styles (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque).

These wetlands, composed of lagoons as well as salt marshes, welcome, in the spring and autumn, huge flocks of migratory birds en route to their new seasonal homes.

There are vestiges of both prehistoric and Roman settlements in Puerto Real that bear witness to the fact that the land on which the modern city is sited has been inhabited for a very long time.

The Catholic Monarchs founded the town of Puerto Real in 1483 as a royal demesne powerbase (in an otherwise profoundly manorialized territory) for naval operations in North Africa, primarily involving privateering and coastal raids.

From the time of its founding, Puerto Real's prosperity was closely tied to the fortunes of these other Atlantic ports, especially Cádiz, which soon grew rich from its commerce with America.

An international conference of monarchist powers, the Congress of Verona, in October 1822, deputized France to secure Ferdinand's release and restore absolutism in Spain.

The invading French army, known as the Hundred Thousand Children of St. Louis (France's patron saint), took Madrid, and, on 7 April 1823, laid siege to Cádiz from positions in Puerto Real and nearby San Fernando.

In the process of besieging Cádiz, the French succeeded in destroying a large part of Puerto Real, including its water delivery and sanitation systems.

Shipyard industry in Spain and most of Europe has been unable to compete with their Asian counterparts, due to a number of factors, among them economies of scale and more efficient production methods.

Due to the decline in shipbuilding, Puerto Real has already lost an important part of its industrial base, and the economy of the entire Bay of Cádiz area has suffered.

For that reason, the city's efforts at tourism-promotion mainly emphasize "rural tourism" activities, like golf, horseback-riding, walking, hiking, bicycling, and nature sightseeing.

The local countryside has become a prime asset, and now Puerto Real builds hiking paths and golf courses rather than ocean-going tankers.

Since the time of the transition from dictatorship under Francisco Franco to democracy and a constitutional monarchy form of government (1975–1980), Puerto Real has remained to the left of the political spectrum.