The former island capital of Teguise is Lanzarote´s time machine. As it is one of only a handful of conurbations in the Canary Islands to have maintained its architectural heritage. But as well as the town´s better known buildings, such as the Convento de San Domingo, there´s also a story in virtually every street – with a number of historic houses hiding fascinating former incarnations as casinos, hospitals and jails.
Teguise was a thriving town back in the 18th and 19th centuries – as the island capital was the administrative hub of Lanzarote and home to many successful merchants and traders. Whose impressive homes reflected their new found affluence. Best epitomised today by the house museum at the Palacio Spinola which provides an insight into the lifestyle of Teguise´s gentry at that time.
Unlike the Palacio Spinola many of Teguise´s other grand houses aren´t open to the public. But many are still steeped in history. Such as the nursery, or guarderia, which is located on the Plaza 18 de Junio, the small square which is also home to the well known restaurant Ikarus. Which back in the early 1900´s was home to more adult forms of recreation as this was formerly a casino, adapted by one Esteban Diaz Morales in the 1930’s.
In 1938 however, the property was taken over by the Falange, the fascist body engendered by Franco’s rise to power and was subsequently converted into a public library and a local youth club.
Just around the corner from the Guarderia in Calle Higuera is the former home of the writer Angel Guerra – the pseudonym of José Betancourt Cabrera, a well-known Canarian author.
The house is located right on the corner of Calle Higuera and has a plaque dedicated to its former inhabitant. Although Guerra retired to continue his writing later in life, during the period of dictatorship under Primo de Rivera (founder of the Falange), he was also the director general of prisons.
Just opposite the Guarderia and also with a plaque adorning the wall, is the town’s former hospital. The earliest use of this site was as a town corral, where locals would house their farmyard animals. By the eighteenth century though it had become a dwelling, in consequence of an increase in the town’s population. By 1810, the building was divided into two houses, the larger of the two belonging to Eligio Hernández Pérez, who opened a business here. The property is extensive and concealed behind the façade is a huge internal courtyard, onto which numerous rooms open on the ground floor.
On the third side of the triangular Plaza 18 de Junio are three buildings in a row, which today form three commercial units. Originally Casa Mendez which is now occupied by Galeria La Villa was adapted in the nineteenth century to have a symmetrical frontage, with an unusual fanlight over the double doorway. This entrance leads through into the courtyard of the building where the volcanic stone well which sits on top of the water storage tank (or aljibe, as it is known in Spanish) can still be seen.
Flanking Casa Mendez is Casa de Leon, or the Bodeguita del Medio, which has been both a family home and then up until the 1970’s was used as the town mortuary, providing a resting place for deceased villagers from Los Valles until they could be interred in the cemetery.
Casa Peña, which is now the restaurant Ikarus, was at one time the seat for the Society of Guanapay and the Justice of the Peace. The building has been adapted over time, with the enclosure of the internal patio and the addition of the main doorway into the restaurant. Much of the internal woodwork however is in its original form.
Just round the corner from these buildings is the Plaza de José Antonio, where the rather grand corner house, Casa Cuartel, with its hanging balcony used to be the jailhouse for the Guardia Civil. In the eighteenth century the property belonged to the family of Luis Beltrán Toribio y Valenciano but by the 1920’s the building was being rented by the local authority for the purposes of incarceration.
Heading in the other direction, and in the back streets surrounding the main Plaza de la Constitución, are other notable examples of the colonial architectural style.
The Palacio Spinola provides an excellent insight into the grander style of housing, as the former residence of a wealthy merchant. On the corner behind the Palacio in Calle Nueva is another striking building, known as Casa Torres. This has a grand double doorway at the top of a flight of volcanic steps and internally is still home to a three-metre high chimneypiece. The house is composed of two floors and in places has ceilings made of wooden beams with volcanic stone wedged between the gaps. It was once the home of the famous priest, Bartolomé Torres.
On the other side of the Palacio Spinola, in Calle Notas, there is an anomaly in the form of a blue painted house. This property is known as Casa Curbelo and the wooden casements and doorframes show particularly good examples of the Canarian style of carpentry.
Whilst in Calle Herrera y Rojas, the site of the oldest dwelling on Lanzarote can be found, dating back to 1455. Although the Palacio de Marques was rebuilt in the nineteenth century, it was built from the ruins of the manorial home of the Herrera y Rojas family and during construction a carved gliph was discovered which is purported to be a remnant from the Guanche inhabitants. The property is open to the public in the guise of a Bodega and Tapas bar and boasts a pretty internal courtyard.
