Hermitage of Our Lady of Light

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1478

This hermitage was located on the site now occupied by the parish of Our Lady of Light in the La Isleta neighbourhood. The original religious enclosure seems to have been founded as soon as the Castilian troops led by Juan Rejón landed in mid-1478. This building must have been very rudimentary, given the original characteristics of the sandy terrain. Inside, possibly, a small image of the Virgin of Grace or of Light brought by the conquerors was installed.

We do not know how long this small construction stood, but we do know for certain that by 1552 there was already a solidly built hermitage in La Isleta, linked to the daily life of the nearby Castle of La Luz. This hermitage was completely burned and razed by the Dutch commanded by Van Der Doez, after they looted Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1599.

During the 17th century the hermitage of Light was refurbished again and served for the burials of the small population living nearby, where an inn had been established, some harbour guards and also a small number of occasional fishermen and collectors of orchilla (a lichen used for dye) that was abundant in the nearby reefs.

In 1755 the hermitage was ruined again as a consequence of the effects caused by the Lisbon earthquake on 1 November of that year. A tsunami was felt in these parts so that “… the sea was seen entering and flooding the hermitage of Our Lady of Light there, and having withdrawn like a pistol shot within its old boundary, it uncovered the hull of a ship, of whose shipwreck there is no memory, and left the hermitage full of fish ”. 

The hermitage was quickly repaired and in 1791 its expansion was requested. Years later, its steward and governor of the Castle of La Luz, José Arboniés, commissioned the sculptor Luján Pérez a carving for the enclosure. Completed in 1796, the image of the Virgin of Light, made of polychromed cedar wood, was installed in the hermitage. Today it is kept in the current parish and holds the general patronage over the port that bears her name, as well as being named perpetual chief mayor of the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

From the mid-19th century the hermitage came under the parish of San Bernardo. Its 19th-century heyday was evident in the festivals known as “La Naval”, held every second Saturday of October. The official chronicler Domingo J. Navarro, in his work Recuerdos de un Noventón (Memories of a Noventón), narrates how these festivities were: ” That sandy desert […] became a population of small taverns and camp shops to accommodate and feed almost the entire island that crowded on those beaches in pilgrimage, fulfilling their promises. The splendour of the profusely illuminated hermitage, the bonfires in the square, lanterns of the taverns […], the free sounds of timples and guitars, improvised dances […] formed a fantastic sum that was impossible to describe .”

At the end of the 19th century the population of La Isleta and the Port began to increase rapidly due to the port boom. The hermitage became too small for worship, giving way to the new parish of Our Lady of Light, whose temple began to be erected in 1906. Even in 1912, during the construction of the temple, the old hermitage remained standing within the new enclosure.

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