Blog Oficial de Turismo de Gran Canaria

La Recova, or Municipal Market of  Gáldar offers a daily festival for the senses within its highly artistic building premises.

The iron bars on the entrance gate to La Recova, or the Municipal Market of Gáldar, are the very same the premises had when it was inaugurated in 1945, the date when it became a great meeting place for local residents and a melting pot for flavours and aromas at this northern location in Gran Canaria. The detail on the railings also symbolise the close links with the orginal roots of the city of Gáldar, which from Monday to Saturday provides a superb point of sale for the finest locally-sourced farm and sea products.

The Néstor Álamo Museum is set in a beautiful 17th century building, and highlights the life and times of the composer and historian, author of timeless melodies.

It is always time for music here. The hands of the wall clock point to five o’clock, perhaps as a sign to someone who overcame the barriers of time, leaving behind an immortal legacy. Under the clock is a cradle, now covered by a white veil, where Néstor Álamo, this kind of Rennaissance creator, musicologist, historian and many other things besides, spent his first few days and months. Nowadays it is impossible for a musical band to conclude their repertoire without one or other of the songs composed by this author ringing out, born in 1906 in Santa María de Guía, in Gran Canaria.

The Christmas events programme in Gran Canaria provides further proof of the extraordinary range of cultural and natural choices to be had on the island.

The beauty of the salt fields of Gran Canaria is the product of the ocean, sun and human tenacity.

A golden white treasure is hidden away along the coastline around Gran Canaria at the hazy border between land and sea, although in this case its presence is not down to any invading pirates. Its origin is owed to the permanent interaction between the two elements that form part of the island’s pure essence: the ocean and the sun. Man’s efforts have gone into illuminating the glittering piles of sea salt at several salt fields along the island’s coast, some of them with several centuries of history behind them.

The Sacred Art Museum, in Gran Canaria, exhibits large artistic treasures right in the heart of the historic district of Vegueta.

There exists a place in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria where the sweet aroma of figs are mixed with the scent of citric fruits. Set between the walls of the Cathedral of Santa Ana and calle Espíritu Santo, facing south, is the aromatic Patio de los Naranjos, which dates from the 17th century and topped off by a splendid Canary balcony. The rooms surrounding the courtyard are former cathedral side buildings, and today house the Diocesan Sacred Art Museum, a celestial reflection in the heart of the historical neighbourhood of Vegueta.

“Home grown” or “adapted varieties” of almond trees in Gran Canaria are century old trees that offer different types of almonds, all of them highly regarded due to their  organoleptic qualities.

The Tomás Morales House Museum in Moya is a showcase of the profoundness of cultura in Gran Canaria.

There once was a poet who instead of dipping his feather in ink, he dipped it directly into the sea water. He was called Tomás Morales, and was born in Moya in 1884 and is considered one of the leading lights in modernism in Spain. His poems contain traces of foam and salt, because, as he said himself, they come from the infinite Atlantic.

Every knife that Francisco Torres makes is a wholly unique piece, and proof of Gran Canaria’s deep-rooted craftwork tradition.

Every Canary knife tells a story. Some of them can cut short our breath with their steel blades. Rafael Torres Osorio, a resident of Santa María de Guía, in Gran Canaria, forged well deserving fame as an artisan knife-maker, while his son, Francisco Torres Rodríguez, delicately holds up a knife that is able to slit through the patterns of time. “This is the last one my father designed in 1992”, he reveals with emotion and pride etched on his face. The handle, a replica made by himself, is pure silver and goldsmithing genius, a combination of animal horn, precious metals, know-how and patience.

A piece of aromatic reality unfolds before visitors’ eyes at Vegueta Market in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

“That’s just eight euros, madam. I’ll put the fish in two bags and that’ll be easier for you to carry. Have a good day...” Pleasant chit-chat, the wooden model boat hanging from the side and some attractive fresh produce from one of the fish counters begin to provide an insight into Vegueta Market in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as we enter its centuries-old facilities. This area, over and above a colourful display of wonderful wares, opens the door to visitors providing access to a kind of theatre, which, nevertheless, is an authentic piece of aromatic and bustling reality.

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.