The towers of Artenara gaze upon those of Gran Canaria
There are four towers that gaze skywards while blurring the boundaries between sky and earth on the summit of Gran Canaria.
These stone beacons catch the eye and draw it upwards, with the insistence of a child and the perseverance of centuries. They point to the obvious. The uninterrupted blue and the pine forests at their feet. But they also reveal a reality that escapes the eye at first glance. It is the passage of time and the stories of those who have lived and continue to live on the border between two worlds.
Roque Nublo and its faithful companion, La Rana, kept solitary watch over the summit, with the patience of those who wait for a sign to give purpose to a long vigil. Much later came the men and women, first in Aboriginal cave settlements and later in historic communities that also made use of these natural hollows.
Old customs gave way to new ones, often adaptations of what had gone before, but one thing remained unchanged: the gaze towards the sky. And so, in this landscape dotted with Aboriginal sanctuaries and solar markers, churches such as San Matías Church in Artenara emerged, its two square towers of red masonry drawing a striking parallel with the natural form of Roque Nublo.
Roque Nublo was born of the volcano. In the case of San Matías Church, its origins lie in a small chapel built in 1630, completely rebuilt at the end of the nineteenth century to create the present-day three-aisled church. The church invites both quiet reflection and a sense of the infinite, much like the feeling experienced at the foot of Roque Nublo. Its stained-glass windows soften the brilliance of the daylight, allowing it to illuminate the painted scenes with just the right intensity. Inspired by both religious beliefs and by the sunrises and sunsets over the island's summit landscape.
Every August, the Festival of the Virgen de la Cuevita further highlights the stone soul of Gran Canaria's summit. For a few days, the small statue leaves its cave to reside in San Matías Church before departing again at night, once the celebrations have ended, to return to its sanctuary in the heart of the mountain.
This panoramic view of all four towers together can be seen from La Crucita Viewpoint, a crossroads in the centre of Gran Canaria where the paths of the island's Aboriginal inhabitants, transhumant shepherds, farmers, labourers, livestock traders and hikers have crossed. The imprint of the island's history runs deep here.
In the distance, the four towers continue to raise their gaze and dreams towards the sky in search of hope, like birds carried aloft on rising currents, just as they have done ever since the Roque Nublo first became Roque Nublo, or since a group of Franciscan friars laid the first stones of the Chapel of San Matías.
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