Port of La Luz

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Industrial architecture · Year: 1883

The Port of La Luz is a fundamental element in the analysis of the historical development of the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; and it is so not only from an economic and social point of view but also urbanistically, since from the end of the 19th century the city grew from its foundational limits towards that port, a centre of attraction and development.

The bay of La Luz, sheltered by the peninsula of La Isleta, was a magnificent natural anchorage already used even before the foundation of Las Palmas. The conquerors landed here, but after the foundation of the city on the edge of the Guiniguada, this splendid natural port was located far from the urban centre. And although it never ceased to function as an anchorage, local authorities and merchants sought a closer place to serve as the city’s port. 

Thus arose the dock at the so-called charco de los Abades, next to the cove of San Telmo, at the northern end of the Triana neighbourhood. For centuries, through that cove of unfavourable conditions, being open to prevailing winds and exposed to large tides, the transfer of goods and passengers was carried out with difficulty. At the end of the 18th century, given the increase in port traffic and the progressive development of island trade, local authorities proposed to carry out a shelter port in this place. It was necessary to wait until the beginning of the 19th century for the construction works of the San Telmo pier to begin, a construction that the sea regularly ruined or made impracticable.

It was clear that another place on the coast had to be sought to build infrastructure in proper conditions, and that place was the bay of La Luz, used for centuries as an anchorage and which now, already in the second half of the 19th century, did not seem so distant after the completion of the 2nd Order road connecting the city with La Isleta. 

The project for the Port of Refuge of La Luz was drafted in 1881 by the Gran Canarian engineer Juan León y Castillo and managed in Madrid by his brother Fernando, a prominent politician during the Restoration period. Approved on 3 March the following year and auctioned in favour of an English company ( Swanston and Company ), the construction works of the port began on 26 February 1883. The works consisted of the construction of an outer breakwater (La Luz pier) that sheltered the bay; at the same time another transverse pier-breakwater (Santa Catalina) was built for commercial operations. This original port ended up becoming at the beginning of the 20th century a fundamental base for international navigation serving European colonial expansionism, then at its height. Merchants and intermediaries, especially British, settled there for the control of coaling and provisioning of supplies and equipment required by steam navigation, also becoming the main exporters of local products.

The success of this infrastructure was such that during the first decades of the 20th century successive expansion projects were promoted and drafted. Engineers Ramonell (1916), Rodríguez Roda and Antonio Artiles (1927) proposed and carried out the construction of a new breakwater, the Muelle Grande, which starting from the Punta del Palo in La Isleta extended 2,800 metres into the sea. Besides configuring a huge dock, the new structure allowed the formation at its beginning of a large esplanade dedicated to the storage of goods. 

In the following years, works continued with significant modifications and additions, including the completion in 1935 of a new pier that started from the isthmus coast, at the height of the Santa Catalina “castle”, and extended 800 metres into the sea. It was intended for fruit loading, but after the end of the Civil War it became a Naval Base and Arsenal. In 1952 a fishing pier parallel to that of La Luz was projected, starting from the homonymous castle. 

From the 1960s, and more decisively since 1971, new projects followed without interruption, first realising the enormous breakwater, begun decades earlier, called Generalísimo (today León y Castillo) of 3.5 kilometres long; and another even larger (4,200 metres) that closes the outer dock, called Reina Sofía. 

The construction, evolution and development of the Port of La Luz constitutes a very important chapter in the history of Las Palmas. Apart from being an economic engine, this infrastructure was a determining cause of the urbanisation and growth of a good part of the city, with the formation of the neighbourhoods of El Puerto, La Isleta, Santa Catalina, Alcaravaneras and, later, Guanarteme.

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