Arrecife is home to two of the island’s four historic castles, dating back to the 16th century. The oldest of which, the Castillo de San Gabriel, is located right in the heart of the island capital
Arrecife may well be a modern looking city today. But it still boasts a fair degree of history – epitomised by the presence of two castles – the Castillo de San José and the Castillo de San Gabriel.
Whilst the Castillo de San José sits on the outer edge of Arrecife at the Puerto de Los Marmoles the Castillo de San Gabriel is much more centrally placed. Located on a little islet just off the seafront walkway and opposite the main pedestrian shopping street of Leon y Castillo.
Originally constructed to help defend the island from pirates and marauders, the castle of San Gabriel’s stone structure dates back to 1573, when Don Agustin Herrera y Rojas ordered the works to be carried out.
Prior to this there was a wooden fortress on the same site, but this proved insufficient to protect against invaders as it caught fire and burned to the ground. After the invasion of the pirate Morato Arraez in 1585, when the wooden interior of the castle was again set alight, it was necessary to undertake significant reinforcements in 1586 and again in 1590.
So in 1592, the current San Gabriel castle was constructed, this time following the design of architect and engineer Leonardo Torriani, an Italian who arrived in Lanzarote in 1591.
His plan involved the creation of a paved road leading across the water, up to the low square castle. The fortress was entirely walled in with three cannons and an imposing entrance. The wooden interior was replaced with masonry to ensure that fire could not destroy the fortifications again. There was just one entrance way constructed to minimise the likelihood that attackers could breach its defences.
The original roadway as devised by Torriani was a drawbridge, the only one of its kind to be found in the Canary Islands. This structure is still intact and is known locally as the Balls Bridge (Puente de las Bolas), due to the two balls which sit atop the gateway, just beyond the drawbridge.
Nowadays, this walkway is the pedestrian route out to the castle. The drawbridge has stood the test of time as it still works, although it is never used. The castle also has a bell tower on its roof, used to sound the alarm when unknown vessels approached the harbour of Arrecife.
Two further cannon were placed upon the roof, one facing out to sea and the other towards Arrecife, although now the cannon sit on the forecourt of the castle. The two pieces of artillery positioned outside the castle now were produced at the Seville artillery foundry in 1884.
They were originally located on the site of what is today the Mirador del Rio. Which was formerly a gun battery designed to repel a feared US invasion during the war between America and Spain in 1898. A year that has since gone down in Spanish history as The Disaster – as Spain lost many of her colonial strongholds, such as Cuba and the Philippines to the US.
In previous centuries, the Mirador had served as a lookout point. As Lanzarote was targeted by numerous forces, including the English and the Turk, due to its strategic importance for trade between the Old and New Worlds.
The discovery of the Americas in the 1490´s, meant that many more ships were passing between Europe, Africa and the New World, often with valuable cargo, such as gold and sugar.
Today, the Castillo de San Gabriel houses a small archaeological exhibit about the island’s previous inhabitants, the Guanche. Which features is a collection of items, including indigenous pottery, old coins, fossils, jewellery, some maritime artefacts and a collection of Guanche bones. Thus the displays combine archaeological finds with ethnographical items of the island’s previous inhabitants.
Opening Times
Tuesday to Friday :: 10.00 – 13.00 and 16.00 – 19.00
Saturday :: 10.00 – 13.00
