The Castle of Santa Catalina

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1629

In a document at the archive of Acialcázar (Milicia II) an entry is made related to this castle: «It was built in 1629 in combination with the Castle of La Luz, the Tower of Santa Ana and the Castle of Santa Isabel, in order to defend the local population against foreign attacks they might be subject to. It got its name from a church with the same saint's name built nearby, about a musket shot inland, being founded on a solid seafood sea shore. It's guns can protect a nearby cove that is out of range for the Castle of La Luz, and its designs were drawn up by Captain Prospero Casola, one of His Majesty's Island Military Engineers and Gran Canaria Councillor. [...] It is quite irregular and even defective in shape due to its weak angles and for its II I/2 vs in height above sea level. It has several á 24 bronze cannons and several other iron ones, and was guarded by Presidio Castellano soldiers who earned 13 silver escudos a month. It is situated on a cove where previous foreign invasions had taken place.»

This is a coastal fortress tower located some 3 kilometres from the primitive population, in a star shape except on the sea facing side which has mixed lines, with its base points, especially the front ones, rather like breakwaters. On the single main floor 5 metres above sea level, where access is gained up an exterior stone staircase, which at the end of the 19th century was unusable, was a vestibule and two rooms which around that time must have been used as garrison accommodation and replacement parts, respectively. Another stone staircase led up from this vestibule to an elevated esplanade standing four metres above the main floor. From the middle of the 19th century it had lain en ruins, as the waves at high tide would pour in up to a metre and a half high, wearing away its foundations, especially at the northern part which is from where the sea came battering in, and this exposed area broke away the crowning stones, several of which collapsed. 

[...] On 5th December 1931 this castle was one of those proposed to be handed over to the Inland Revenue as it was no longer needed by the Army Ministery. This was duly formalized on 6th November 1933 and then it was knocked down, so the harbour of Our Lady of El Pino could be built, where the Canary Naval Base is currently installed. 

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