Blog Oficial de Turismo de Gran Canaria

The Canary Museum has a surprise in store in the district of Vegueta, where there is an air of a grand scientific world.

There are mummies out there, and not just within the thick walls of the Pyramids of Egypt and in Hollywood films. In the case of Gran Canaria, there some lucky individuals enjoying the privilege of inhabiting number 2, calle Doctor Verneau in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Don’t be alarmed. They don’t live in a private residence, and you won’t bump into them at the bus stop or at the corner coffee shop. This address belongs to the Canary Museum, a century-old institution founded back in 1879, where there is an air of a great scientific world that proliferated all over Europe during the 19th century.

The Martín Chirino Foundation, named after the world famous sculptor born in Gran Canaria, awaits your visit at the fascinating Castle of La Luz.

Nobody had thought of sculpturing the wind. That is, until Martín Chirino, one of the leading sculptors to have emerged over the last few decades, came along and did just that. The artist was born in 1925 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, at the heart of a family linked with shipyards. For this reason, the sea and the Canaries’ landscape fused with iron and bronze since his early childhood. This is how his first iconic spiral figure came about.

Gran Canaria combines fire, sea, festivals and tradition when celebrating La Noche de San Juan - St John’s Eve or Midsummer’s Eve.

The shortest nights of the year are also the most intense in Gran Canaria. The sea, the moon and fire melt into one on the island the night before the feast of St John, every 23rd June (Midsummer’s Eve), to experience an annual ritual of joy, hope and purification that is celebrated particularly intense in this corner of the Atlantic. This is where the elements of Nature and the people of Gran Canaria come together to hold an unforgettable evening where boredom is the first thing to burn away on the fire.