The Convent of San Agustín

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1644 · Authors: Diego Nicolás Eduardo

This monastery was consecrated in 1644 and built on the sea front, next to the old hermitage of Vera Cruz, signalling the presence of the Agustinos order in Las Palmas. It stood on two floors, with a square cloister and ashlar tower, plus a wooden balcony on its bell tower. The cloister had a column set in each corner. Its church was built where the hermitage once stood, with three naves and gabled roofs, all blessed that very year. The monastery boasted forty friars, and theology and scholastic studies were taught there. Towards the end of the 18th century a new single nave church was built, according to plans by Diego Nicolás Eduardo. After the confiscation of Mendizábal, the convent building had several uses, with its cloister home to the classrooms of San Agustín college, and finally, the Canary Law Courts, which occupied it until 1960. One year prior to this the last ever death penalty was passed in Gran Canaria, ending the life of  El Corredera, a legendary character who had been pursued by the General Franco dictatorship, which had been kept a secret since the civil war. On this plot the Justice Palace was built during the second half of last century. The bell tower from the convent and San Agustín church has been preserved. During refurbishments carried out in the early 1980s, the church lost its lineage. The statue of Christ of Vera Cruz is worshipped here, carved out of wood by sculptor Luján Pérez.

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