The town of Antigua in Fuerteventura

The present city of Antigua is the capital of a joint that extends from the center to the east coast of the island of Fuerteventura. This joint comprises, besides the city of Antigua itself, agricultural villages in Triquivijate, Valles de Ortega, Agua de Bueyes and Casillas de Morales, and the resort of Caleta de Fuste, one of the largest resorts in Fuerteventura with its recent extension, Costa de Antigua. With 6,000 inhabitants, Caleta de Fuste is more populated than the capital, Antigua, which has only 2300 inhabitants.

Administratively, the municipality of Antigua is one of the six municipalities of Fuerteventura; like the rest of the island, it is part of the province of Las Palmas (Gran Canaria).

Besides tourism, the town has a thriving agriculture based on large fertile plains in the colors copper, once covered with windmills that produced the “gofio” cereal meal at the base of the traditional diet of Canaries.

These good volcanic soils are lined by “Plaguelands” (malpaís), vast expanses of volcanic rocks, such as Malpaís Chico, from the mountain Gairía, or Malpaís Grande born around Tuineje. In the south, there is also another “Maleterre” called the Malpaís de Toneles.

The territory of the municipality of Antigua has an area of 263 km². This territory does not present major reliefs, it is rather flat, consists of vast plains swept by the trade winds; the average altitude is 252 meters above sea level The main peaks to the west in the mountain range. Maninubre part of the Massif Betancuria; the highest point is Mount Morro Janana, with 674 meters high.

The eastern part of the town is separated from the great central plain by a series of peaks and promontories, aligned perpendicular to the coast, forming broad valleys opening to the ocean. In the southeastern part, these valleys are narrower and form ravines. These coastal valleys have fertile agricultural land, especially near Pozo Negro.

The massif of Betancuria (Macizo de Betancuria) separates the town of Antigua in the municipality of Betancuria, located west. North, Antigua borders of the municipality of Puerto del Rosario. South, Antigua is separated from the town of Tuineje by ridges, volcanic flows and the mountains to the coast.

Antigua is located on the FV-20 road from Puerto del Rosario (20 km northeast) to Tiscamanita (9 km south) in Tuineje (13 km south) and to the south coast. FV-416 road connects Antigua to Betancuria within 10 km.

Latitude Antigua: 28.41667 (28 ° 25 ’) North

Longitude of Antigua: 14.01667 (14 ° 1 ’) West

Elevation: 230 m.

In this long history remain the typical houses of the peasants of the region, caseríos, modest homes including single level buildings in L or U, with a single floor or at most a small attic, walls of bare stone or whitewashed, few openings and a type of flat roof adobe. But the village also housed for centuries, important families of the agricultural bourgeoisie that enriched themselves by cultivating cereals on large tracts of land and exporting grain to the other islands of the Canaries. The bourgeoisie had built large square houses with many rooms, one or two floors, a tiled roof, balconies and decorative stones. Today some of these ancient houses, some restored, recall the glorious past of the municipality of Antigua.

Civil architecture also includes mills like those of Antigua, from La Corte, and Valles de Ortega, and lime kilns as those found in La Guirra and La Torre.

Religious architecture Town contains some notable buildings such as the Notre Dame d ’ Antigua and St. Isidore the Ploughman chapels in Triquivijate, Saint-Roch in Casillas de Morales, Our Lady of Guadeloupe in Agua de Bueyes and St. Francis Xavier in Las Pocetas.

At the end of the sixteenth century, in 1593, Antigua was destroyed by an attack by Barbary pirates; in the early seventeenth century, during the reconstruction of the village, it was decided to enlarge the old chapel and into church for the people of Antigua became numerous; However, the village still depended on the parish of Betancuria. 1615, a sacristy and an altar were added to the old chapel. In 1629, a Barbican was built around the church to protect it from future attacks; Barbican this has now disappeared. The bell tower was built in the eighteenth century. The Church of Our Lady of La Antigua became a parish church in 1785, when Antigua became independent of Betancuria.

The church of Nuestra Señora de la Antigua has external Franciscan influences. The red volcanic rock of the island has been used extensively in the construction of gates and the bell tower of square and topped with a dome.

Visiting hours: 10 am to 14 pm.

Go to Centre of Craft Mill.

Go to Cactus Garden Antigua.

Triquivijate is mostly visited for its chapel dedicated to St. Isidore the Laborer (Ermita de San Isidro Labrador). This chapel of the eighteenth century was completed in 1715. This is a building with simple lines with doors to arch and a single nave.

La Ermita de San Isidro Labrador has a three-panel altarpiece; the central panel is a painting of the eighteenth century representing scenes of St. Isidore life.

St. Roch chapel you can visit (Ermita de San Roque), built around the middle of the eighteenth century. Inside, an altarpiece has a polychrome wooden statuette of St. Roch and another representing St. John the Baptist; a small oil painting depicts Christ with Mary Magdalene lying at his feet.

This area of ​​ridges and ravines contains important populations of prickly pears; prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica), named locally tuneras are generally infected by an insect, cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), which is extracted once a popular dye.

At Agua de Bueyes you can visit the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadeloupe (Ermita de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), a building whose construction began in the seventeenth century, in 1642; its final appearance was given to 1770-1773 with the construction of a bell tower.

The Chapel of Our Lady of Guadeloupe is one of the few churches in Fuerteventura whose court is surrounded by a crenellated wall, indicating a Franciscan influence. One enters the courtyard through a gate covered by a semicircular arch; above the gate of the wall enclosing the stonemason took time to sculpt three medallions with ornamental decorations, such as are found nowhere else on Fuerteventura, and that art historians do not know how to interpret .

The building has a single nave, which backs onto the sacristy on the north wall. The entrance gate is made of red stone with a round arch surmounted by a carved stone with a cross.

The interior - with a wooden ceiling - houses two altarpieces: a small altarpiece, in polychrome wood with geometric and floral motifs, and an altarpiece bigger, directed by the painter Juan Bautista Bolaños, located in the apse of the Chapel. The central panel is recessed where a statuette of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, a Mexican statuette given to the island in 1759. Left and right, polychrome wooden statues of “Saint John the Baptist” and "St. Anthony of Padua." The chapel is usually closed to visitors.

For residents of Agua de Bueyes, the statue of the Virgin of Guadeloupe is known as the Virgin of rain (Virgen de la Lluvia). Towards the end of the eighteenth century, after several months of drought, the inhabitants carried in procession the image of the patron saint of the village through arid fields, imploring the Virgin Mary to intervene against the lack of rain; tradition says that it had begun to rain on the way back, even before he brought the statue in the church. To commemorate this event every year about February 28, held the Festival of Water (Fiesta del Agua): villagers in traditional costumes, knocking loudly goat bones for rain, singing songs traditional Canarian.

This natural monument is divided between the municipalities of Antigua and Tuineje.

The Malpaís Grande, located further south, is an impressive character desert landscape, with amazing lava flows caused by the eruptions of the volcano Toneles. These lava flows reached the coast by the Barranco de Pozo Negro. The highest mountain is the mountain of the Caldera de los Arrabales to 201 m.

For an overview of Malpaís Grande, we can - from Tiscamanita, near the bus stop - take a track that goes towards the southeast. After 3 km you turn right, then after 400 m, we reach the Caldera de la Laguna which is extracted from volcanic ash used as fertilizer for crops. Since the Caldera de la Laguna you can admire the Malpaís Grande.

Found in “Plaguelands” of Malpaís Grande some interesting plant species such as the tree tobacco (Nicotiana glauca), named locally mimo, and passerine bristling (Thymelaea hirsuta), named aulaga, while its most characteristic fauna is a gecko, the taranto (Tarentola mauritanica) appointed perenquén.

From the mid-sixteenth century Antigua tried to separate from its neighbor, Betancuria, much more populated. In the eighteenth century Antigua became the most prosperous city of Fuerteventura through the cultivation of cereals. In the nineteenth century, tensions with Betancuria reached their climax up to armed demonstrations between the two cities, which necessitated the intervention of the militia to restore order.

During the nineteenth century Antigua became even - for a short time - the seat of the Judiciary Island Fuerteventura.

However, the traditional economy of the municipality was based on agriculture, rainfed and irrigated, producing wheat, barley, millet, lentils, chickpeas, potatoes, tomatoes, fodder, and now aloe. Livestock farming is also important. Coastal fishing is restricted mainly to the port of Pozo Negro.

Phone: 00 34 928 163 286

Website: www.caletadefuste.es

Open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 14 pm.

Prices: Single room: 48 €; double room: 90 €

Address: Calle El Corte 1

Phone: 00 34 928 878 705

Site on the Web: www.eradelacorte.com