Sardina del Norte in Gáldar and its love of the sea

Sardina del Norte in Gran Canaria is opening the first museum devoted to the sea, highlighting the town’s history as the island’s First Sea Port.

The first Marine Classroom is opening in Sardina del Norte in Gáldar. This museum, run by the Canary Association of Maritime Collectors (ACCOMAR), will break new ground by featuring not only the port and maritime history of the town of Sardina del Norte in Gáldar, but also its interesting surrounding area.

Gran Canaria has forever been closely bound to the sea and not just because of its famous beaches or its varied landscape, bathed by the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, the island has always been a strategic point on sea-faring maps. Consequently, the island people largely worked in professions related to the sea, as people travelled across the ocean and also used it to export goods from all over the world.

Aula de Mar de Sardina. Foto de Ayuntamiento de Gáldar

Back in the day, the docks and quays of Sardina del Norte in Gáldar were an epicentre for boat traffic as these craft entered and left the port, coming and going with their holds loaded, mainly full of farming produce, making it the main port for goods to leave the island and earning it the name of the First Sea Port. Boats also docked there to bring the bells and the clock for the Church of St James, subsequently transported inland to the town.

Nowadays, the Port of Sardina del Norte is a hub for active tourism, scuba diving and protection as a Special Conservation Zone. The riches of its seabed make this one of Gran Canaria’s most important spots for scuba diving.

This all goes to show the importance of this museum to conserve and divulge the history of our most precious treasure: the sea. Gran Canaria is now offering visitors an interesting new spot, the Maritime Classroom-Museum in Sardina del Norte.

One of this museum’s peculiarities is its location, which is unusual to say the least. It is housed in a cave with its own interesting port history as it used to be a huge goods store when the Port of Sardina exported produce to the rest of the Canary Islands and to Europe, before the Port of Las Palmas was built in the capital of Gran Canaria.

Who hasn’t heard sea-faring men and women tell stories about treasure hidden at the bottom of the ocean? The Maritime Classroom in Sardina del Norte is bringing us some of those precious items. This is doubtlessly a valuable collection of objects for anyone who loves the sea, further explained by information panels relating the long and interesting maritime history of Sardina and the region of the North of Gran Canaria.