Hermitage of San Sebastián

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1520

The Real de Las Palmas once had a hermitage under the invocation of San Sebastián. It was located on the outskirts of the town, beyond the protective wall, to the north, surrounded by crops, in what came to be called the “vegueta de San Sebastián”. Its current location would be around where Obispo Venegas and Rabadán streets meet today.

It was possibly built around 1520, since it is known that in 1526 it was established that on the saint's day the Cathedral Chapter would go to the hermitage in supplication to request protection against a plague of pestilence affecting the area. According to the map of the city of Las Palmas by engineer Torriani, the small building was a single nave with a gabled roof and walls made of adobe around it.

Viera y Clavijo informs us that during the Dutch invasion at the end of the 16th century the attackers chose the place to camp near the walls before entering the city to sack it.

Little else is known about this hermitage, only that by the second half of the 19th century it was no longer standing.

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