Blog Oficial de Turismo de Gran Canaria

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.

Several paintings  by the painter Pepe Dámaso light up Triana Tourist Information Office, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

When he comes on stage, one gets the feeling that the air lights up and a warm breeze starts to blow, as when the rays of the morning sun creep into a room with views of the ocean. Pepe Dámaso, born in Agaete (Gran Canaria) in 1933 and one of the Canary Islands most universal artists, is the ambassador of light and colour of his island birthplace. Pepe says that one has to “emborregar” (a local word for rolling in the sand) tourism in flour and give tourists a taste of fried moray eel, “toasted and salty like the sea”. When the painter speaks, his Gran Canaria speaks through him.

The historic town centre of Villa de Agüimes, in the southeast of Gran Canaria, is a heady and empowering setting.

Life is art in Agüimes. Every corner of its old town centre looks like it has been chiselled out especially. These painstaking efforts have created a setting in which tradition and history have melted into one. A whole grid of main streets, backstreets, squares and alleyways have forged a quite heady beauty.

Everyone is aware of regions throughout Spain that pride themselves on their long tradition of producing cured meat and sausages. However, among these areas, the chorizo and black pudding made in Gran Canaria’s town of Teror clearly stand out as world-class.

Calle Perojo, with its Site of Cultural Interest award, features a range of colourful, architectural styles and a passion for detail in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Architecture, colour and a passion for detail are the attractions along Calle Perojo in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a street that has been awarded the title of Site of Cultural Interest (BIC in Spanish) in the category of Historical Location, in recognition of its great beauty and artistic value. A walk around this emblematic street in the island’s capital is to delve into an elegant environment in which past and present go hand in hand to provide a memorable urban experience.