The City and Sea Museum

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1931

This museum centres around for exhibition halls and a casemate, and narrates the history of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria from the 15th century through to the present day. It follows the project set out by doctor of History and Art and professor at the University of Las Palmas, Ángeles Alemán, and works along two lines, the history of the castle and its archaeology, and the history of the city and its relationship with the sea.

The first hall, The Views of the seafarers, “is based”, in the words of Alemán, “on the cartographic wealth that has displayed a group of islands, since the 14th and 15th century, which are often whimsically set out as an enclave of extraordinary strategic value, making them a desired place to be”.

The second hall goes under the title of The birth of the city a city which was firstly called Real de Las Palmas and whose images of hermitages and convents are essential in order to understand the history of the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as the buildings that spring up on either side of the Guiniguada ravine, and the Cathedral of Santa Ana, the first great religious building that the Kingdom of Spain built on its route to the west.

The third hall is The city in the 19th century. At this historic moment in time, a series of travellers, including both scientists and literary writers, are attracted to a city of true exotic beauty, of which prints by JJ Williams are a fine testimony. Institutionally speaking, the creation of the Canary Museum is fundamental in the consolidation of its scientific nucleus.

The contemporary city  is the title of the fourth hall, which deals with the growth of the city in the 20th century, and how the construction of the Port of  La Luz contributed to this. Artistic interpretations of the city and the sea are displayed through many sculptures and paintings here.

To finalise, visitors can get a close look at the castle’s casemate, which, apart from being the oldest part of the fortress, is the best preserved part too.

 

 

 

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