Nazaret is a large village of about 1000 inhabitants located in the center of the island of Lanzarote; the village is part of the municipality of Teguise.
The main tourist attraction is quite spectacular villa built in an old quarry. Egyptian actor Omar Sharif would have owned for only a few days in 1972; the villa is however still called "House of Omar Sharif” or Lagomar.
The village was established in the eighteenth century by displaced populations southwest of the island, whose villages had been destroyed by volcanic eruptions from 1730 to 1736; the village of Nazaret is mentioned for the first time on a 1741 map of the military engineer Antonio Riviere. The village was created around the Chapel of Our Lady of Nazareth (Ermita de Nuestra Señora de Nazaret).
The Oasis of Nazareth is a picturesque villa built in the early 1970s in a former quarry rofe (volcanic lapilli) and volcanic rock. This villa was designed by César Manrique on order from a real estate developer Sam Benady, which marketed the Oasis of Nazareth subdivision (Urbanización Oasis de Nazaret), located northeast of the village. Sam Benady wanted to use the house to receive his potential buyers of homes in the subdivision.
As usual César Manrique designed a villa whose architecture marrying the conformation of the land, using the cavities created by rock excavation, to house parts of the house or stairs. The result is a kind of cave dwelling where the rock of the mountain appears naked in the rooms of the house contrasts with the whitewashed walls.
Following a quarrel between César Manrique and the developer, Manrique did not lead the project to completion; the construction was continued by Jesús Soto. The architect Jesús Soto, a native of Fuerteventura, had the same designs that César Manrique and often collaborated with him on many projects such as the development of Jameos del Agua, the restaurant El Diablo in the National Park Timanfaya or the Monument to the Farmer.
Egyptian actor Omar Sharif lived in Lanzarote in 1972 to play the role of Captain Nemo in a TV Series “La Isla misteriosa y el capitán Nemo”, a Spanish adaptation of the novel by Jules Verne” L’Île Mystérieuse”, directed by Juan Antonio Bardem and Henri Colpi. France in this six-part series was broadcast in December 1973 under the title " L’Île Mystérieuse”.
While visiting the island, Omar Sharif discovered the Villa Oasis de Nazaret and fell under the spell of this cavern of “Arabian Nights” that can evoke a desert fortress. Omar Sharif would have immediately bought the villa in the British promoter Benady.
Regretting quickly having yielded the villa, Shmuel Benady - who knew the passion of the actor for the game - proposed a game of bridge with Omar Sharif, asking him to “the pot” the villa and concealing her that it was a bridge champion. Omar Sharif would the challenge and thus lost the villa, just days after acquiring it. The actor, very sorry, would have left the island the next day and would never returned to Lanzarote.
To prove this story, visit the villa has a bridge table and photographs showing Omar Sharif playing bridge with Sam Benady, but on a different table and in a different place.
This story is probably an invention marketing, but several decades later, the villa is still named “CasaOmar Sharif”, although that Omar Sharif had ever actually lived.
Since the early 1970s, the villa has had several owners, but in 1989 it was acquired by German architect Dominik von Boettinger, who had noticed during a sailing trip he made to the Canary Islands in 1984. With his wife, Beatriz van Hoff - also an architect - Boettinger began to turn the villa into a place of cultural encounters with art exhibitions, music concerts, around a gourmet restaurant.
The rest of the old quarry was built in the spirit of César Manrique and Jesús Soto: the architecture of new buildings adapts to the shape of the rocks; a bar and restaurant, two apartments and a pool have been created, all of which are wrapped in gardens dominated the local flora: cactus, euphorbia, palms, aloes and bougainvillea. The parts of the cave house were renovated and history - more or less mythical - the home of Omar Sharif was staged.
The new entity, named Lagomar (“sea-Lac”) or LagOmar by reference to Omar Sharif, was opened to the public in 1997.
The complex Lagomar has a bar, a gourmet restaurant and two apartments.
The bar La Cueva (Cave) is open from 18 pm to 2 am 30 30 (4: 30 pm on weekends); near the bar, live music is offered on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The restaurant Lagomar is open from 12 am to 23: 30 pm; It offers Mediterranean cuisine and Middle Eastern (Omar Sharif requires ...) beside the “lake”, a pond lined with pebbles; the atmosphere is particularly pleasant at sunset when the light reflects off the reddish rocks of the cliff. During the day the restaurant offers tapas.
Both apartments have a kitchen, a living room, a terrace with a plunge pool; they offer a nice view over the plains of Lanzarote; these apartments can be rented by the week.
_small.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Nazaret seen for Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image Adobe Stock (new tab).")
Visits
The village of 
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The pool of Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Stairs in the cave house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. troglodyte Salon of the house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
_small.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Movie Poster La Isla Misteriosa with Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Photographs of parts of bridge between Omar Sharif and Sam Benady. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Bridge table of the house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Living room of the cave house of Omar Sharif with a photograph of Jesús Soto. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Bedroom Wren home of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Kitchen troglogyte the house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
_small.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Balcony of the house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Aviary in the gardens of Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The pool of Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Gardens of Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. The house of Omar Sharif. Click to enlarge the image.")
_small.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Tropical Tree Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image Adobe Stock (new tab).")
Practical information
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Prospectus Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Ticket Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Restaurant Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Restaurant Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "The village of Nazaret in Lanzarote. Restaurant Lagomar. Click to enlarge the image.")
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