WOODCARVING & ACCESSORIES

Exploring Lanzarotes And The Islands History

Lanzarote is located in the Canary Islands and is a popular and modern tourist destination famous for it amazing year round climate, amazing beaches and excellent water sports. But many visitors don’t release that it also boasts a fascinating history too making it important for tourists staying in villas and hotels in Lanzarote to get out see the true side of Lanzarote. So there’s plenty of transport available and cheap car hire in Lanzarote to enable them to discover the hidden history of the island.

With something in the region of 1.4 million foreign tourists visiting the island each year, many of them arriving from countries such as Germany and the UK on cheap flights to Lanzarote . Air travel is not the only way of getting here though, so if you have plenty of time on your hands you could charter a yacht or hire Luxury motorboat.

Of the seven Canary Islands Lanzarote was the first to be invaded in the early 1400´s by an expedition that represented the Spanish crown and which was led by a Norman noble called Jean de Bethencourt. The conquistadores had little trouble subduing the native Guanche inhabitants, who were easily subdued by the Spanish conquistadors.

As a result Lanzarote rapidly became an important element in the nascent Spanish empire, assuming great importance as a staging post between the Old World and the New.

Spanish ships sailed to the New World with slaves from Africa on board before dropping them off and returning to Spain via the Canaries with cargoes which often included looted gold and silver from the Incas. This soon began to attract the attention of pirates and privateers from across Europe and North Africa. And before long the waters around Lanzarote and the Canaries were swarming with pirates with the island forced to repel successive invasions throughout the 1600 and 1700´s.

Consequently the Spanish authorities decided that they had to fortify the town to protect the local inhabitants from further attacks. Resulting in the construction of the Castillo de Santa Barbara, which was built on the top of Mount Guanapay. An exhausted volcano that overlooks what was then the capital of Lanzarote, Teguise. From here it was possible to spot marauders and sound the alarm, with excellent views down to Lanzarote’s coastlines. Today the Castillo plays a new role as it is now home to the islands Pirate Museum, providing lots of information about this turbulent period in Lanzarote’s history.

Now there’s no excuse not to visit this fascinating island as Lanzarote flights available from all main airports in Britain. Anyone visiting the island for the first time should also consider booking Lanzarote airport transfers before touching down at Arrecife airport in order to avoid queues for taxis, which can become lengthy during peak holiday periods. Such as Easter, Christmas and the school summer holidays.
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