Visit the “Cenobio de Valerón”
More information: www.cenobiodevaleron.com
Tel. +34 618 607 896; Fax: +34 928 895 451
The Cenobio de Valerón, the most impressive and the largest pre-Hispanic granary in all of Gran Canaria, have reopened their doors after two years of construction in order to improve the archaeological premises. The construction and repairs have combined the routes of the aborigine sites in the North of Gran Canaria along with The Painted Cave in Galdar and Maipez in Agaete.
The construction and repairs include the instalment of entrances and exits in order to permit public access to the monument for all of those interested in the history, flora and fauna of the area.
Among other short-term projects it is foreseen that the routes will be open to the public at night, during festive periods, in order to display a lustre and musical environment for visitors along the paths to the silos.
The Cenobio is located in The Cuesta de Silva and it is easy to gain access from Santa María de Guía or from the highway that links Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Agaete. The “Conjunto Historico” in the village of Santa María de Guía is five minutes away by car.
The Cenobio de Valerón, declared A Cultural Interest Asset, is the most breathtaking and the largest pre-Hispanic granary in Gran Canaria. The ancient inhabitants of the island, more than five hundred years ago, carved almost all of the two hundred caves found with stone picks.
The archaeological site is divided into a series of large galleries and there are silos or granaries on the floor and along the walls. The typology or morphology of the chambers as well as their dimensions are wide-ranging.
In many of the silos one can observe the grooves present on the wood or stone doors that were hermetically sealed with ash-grey mortar that can still be found in some of the silos.
Inside of the cavities, besides tools and utensils, the Canarians mainly stored cereal (their food) and seeds, which they used to distribute among the population during hard times.
An historian from the fifteen-century wrote that the ancient Canarians: “put these fruits away in caves on the highest crags so that they would be safe from possible theft and last longer.”
Due to the fact that The Cenobio de Valerón is situated on precipitous land it is similar to a gigantic nature fortress.
For this reason, although there is still no coherent interpretation, investigators reject the theory that this site was once a convent or a monastery where young people were imprisoned under the supervision of priestesses who prepared them for marriage.
Even today there are still many unanswered questions put forward regarding The Cenobio de Valerón… but the truth about the first inhabitants of the island still remains a mystery.
