Galdosian route: 13. The Old Harbour

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

Galdós left from this "Old Harbour"  on all his trips, since he first went to Tenerife in 1862 for his final Bachillerato exam, through to his last trip to Cádiz and back in 1894.

Victorio Macho had visited Gran Canaria in 1921 to get to see the site where the monument was to be set, and was welcomed there by Tomás Morales, who was an enthusiastic promoter of this idea. Its inauguration took place on 28th September 1930. The statue and surrounding area were conceived as a mausoleum facing the sea. By 1968 it had fallen into disrepair, so it was taken away and placed in the Academias Municipales, and then on to Plaza de Santa Ana and finally to the Pérez Galdós House Museum, where it remains today. 

While playing around San Telmo and Los Arenales, a young Galdós used to look at the run down parts of the old northern wall, which were falling apart over time, together with the need to expand the city limits. 

If we pass through the Plaza de los Escritores (over the San Telmo bus station), where in 1993 the Town Hall placed a statue of Manuel Bethencourt (a replica of the Victorio Macho one), we can see the great change the city went through in the 1970s, when work started on the Avenida Marítima along the city's coastline, with its scalextric design, and the central road, plus the building of the so called "Ciudad del Mar" or sea city. In 2010 this monument was moved opposite the main entrance to the Galdós Theatre.

The Old Harbour occupied this whole area, and in a bold jutting out location along the coast called El Martillo, or hammer, Victorio Macho placed 'his Galdós' so it would take centre stage for the locals and seamen like a beacon between the huge expanse of sky, land and sea.

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