Blog Oficial de Turismo de Gran Canaria

The neighbourhood of San Gregorio de Telde, in Gran Canaria, is an exciting blend of history, architecture, commerce and restaurants.

The sign on a small and inviting shop announcing the sale of both music and fishing gear in one synthesises the ability of the neighbourhood of San Gregorio in Telde, Gran Canaria, to surprise and excite. It is bustling with life, a place where a highly important heritage goes hand in hand with a great shopping area and a range of restaurant establishments, offering visitors an all-enveloping, and possibly unexpected, experience at this location to the southeast of the island.

The Interpretation Centre of Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape highlights the values of this World Heritage site.

There was a time when the aborigines of Gran Canaria were able to create a bond between Heaven and Earth. It happened on the island’s highlands. Those people created a unique world with their own hands, involving the starts in the process. The most spectacular example of this dialogue between humans, the Sun and the Moon, happened eight centuries ago, in a cavity located at 1200 m of altitude, excavated in volcanic rock. The sunlight and the silver halo of the full moon magically came through the rectangular skylight designed for the purpose, giving light, in turns, to each one of the figures engraved on the walls of Risco Caído cave number six. But there was nothing magical about it, only observation, technique and belief.

The Crafts Fairs held next to Faro de Maspalomas (Maspalomas Lighthouse) in Spring and Summer show the depth of the Island’s Traditions.

The waves, the breeze and the sea currents draw spirals and all kinds of whimsical meandering shapes next to the dike and breakwater at the foot of Faro de Maspalomas (Maspalomas Lighthouse). Gran Canaria’s Nature has been and still is a constant source of inspiration for the creation of beauty, like a guiding light. Like the Lighthouse has been doing for over a century. For this reason, and as naturally as the waves break on the shore, it is hard to imagine a most suitable space for two must-go dates for all looking for in-depth knowledge of the Island’s traditions. These dates are Faro de Maspalomas (Maspalomas Lighthouse) Summer Crafts Fair and Faro de Maspalomas (Maspalomas Lighthouse) Southern Spring Crafts Fair. In both cases, the Atlantic Ocean is the best background to the displayed crafts.

Entrance to the museums dedicated to Galdós, the poet Tomás Morales, the painter Antonio Padrón and the León y Castillo brothers is now free.

How much is a jewel worth? How much would you pay to dive in a bottomless sea of wonders, to discover the artistic and historical treasures of an island? What if it were for free? That is the case in the four Casas-Museo (Museum-Houses) of Cabildo de Gran Canaria, dedicated to the novelist Benito Pérez Galdós, the modernist poet Tomás Morales, the painter Antonio Padrón, and the brothers Fernando and Juan de León y Castillo, politician and engineer, both relevant to the island’s recent history.

Juana runs a village bar and store in Gran Canaria, founded over a century ago, in the heart of Moya.

“Everybody comes by here”, Juana assures us proudly at her century old premises in the town centre of Moya, in Gran Canaria. And she has the evidence to prove it. Over her fridge sits a signature book, featuring the signatures of ministers, sculptors, Presidents of the Government of the Canaries and foreign tourists of all nationalities. There are even museums out there that cannot boast such a fine list of distinguished visitors.

Plaza de Santa Ana in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is one of the heartbeats of the city’s history and life.

A group of young boys and girls skip playfully around the centre of Plaza de Santa Ana. Their youthful cries drift skywards, bringing back to present time a square that speaks volumes of the past. It is a setting dominated by sturdy, beautiful buildings which have been witnesses to the centuries-old history of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Atlantic city where this emblematic site sits. A place not to be missed.