Galdosian route: 09. The birth house of Galdós

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Routes · Subcategory: Galdosian route

Benito Pérez Galdós was born right in the heart of the district of Triana, here at this house on calle del Cano, on Wednesday 10th May 1843. He was the tenth child of Sebastián Pérez and María Galdós. The young Benito lived in this House until 1862, when he moved to Madrid in order to study there.

Luis and Agustín Millares Cubas remember what the street was like where the little Benito would run around: «Calle del Cano, where the Pérez Galdós family house stood, was like it is today, straight and narrow. It started at calle Malteses, a centre for local traders, and finished at the little square of Convento de las Bernardas, whose crumbling walls lay in ruins and led on to the orchards of San Lázaro and the humble little fishermen’s neighbourhood of La Vica. Its pavement was of cobbled stones, just like other streets, copying the old streets in Seville...».

According to A. Herrera Piqué, Las Palmas at the time was just a peaceful provincial town, still locked inside its ancient and useless walls, and well away from great events that were changing the world.

The present day Pérez Galdós House Museum is set in this canary property, dating from the end of the 18th century, the birthplace and home to Benito Pérez Galdós. The building was acquired by the Cabildo Insular island government of Gran Canaria and was converted into the House Museum in 1964. Previously in the 1930s, it had been home to the bookshop called La tierra de Galdós. The House Museum was then extended in 2010 to occupy house number 1 on calle del Cano.

 

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