Lanzarote travel guide

It is believed that Lanzarote was first settled by slaves of Berber descent from North Africa. The first European explorer to land here was Lanzarotto Malocello from Genoa in the 13th century, hence the name. Although there are other Spanish and Portuguese explorers who landed here during the 15th century who like to lay claim to the name too, such as French Jean de Bethencourt who apparently broke his lance on the shores upon arrival, declaring it ‘Lanza rota’, or broken lance. Nice story, though.

Bethencourt did certainly go on to play a pretty significant role in Lanzarote’s history, and his men were welcomed by islanders who are known as conejeros, or the general Canarian word guanches. This welcome was probably due to the fact that up until then, the island had been vulnerable to piracy and violent attacks and local people often had to go into hiding. The Cueva de los Verdes, a huge, underground volcanic cave in the north of the island became a regular hiding place for islanders during these attacks. After such a violent period, local people actually welcomed nobleman Bethencourt as someone who was going to be able to protect them from such violent attacks, and by 1405 the natives of Lanzarote were greeting him as their “king" and accepted Spanish rule.

Between 1730 to 1736, devastating volcanic eruptions covered a third of the island’s best farming land with layers of volcanic grit (called picón in local dialect) driving many to flee to neighbouring islands, as well as to Cuba and South America. Miraculously, no fatalities ever appeared on record, but many settlements were covered in lava and of course, the economic impact was huge. Drought caused by a lack of rainfall in 1768 pushed this emigration crisis to the limit; visit the Museo del Emigrante Canario for more information on this.

In 1927, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura became part of the province of Las Palmas, which is why it is rather confusingly labelled as Las Palmas on many online maps. During the 1980s, the work and environmental campaigns of leading islander artist and visionary César Manrique really started to take off. Having produced incredible work to highlight the importance of protecting the island’s natural wonders and preventing over development with massive road or resort construction, his major challenge came during the 1980s. This is when Lanzarote started to become popular as a cheap vacation getaway, and the developers moved in. They threatened to destroy everything Manrique had put in place, having worked closely at grassroots and government level for years. Manrique protested at building sites, lobbying government and in many cases, winning. His most famous quote is, perhaps:

“I don’t have any kind of patriotic romanticism… I am a citizen of the world, and we have to have a feeling for the future, not a stupid and provincial mentality. I think the most beautiful feeling is to be a citizen of the world. But there is a speculative mafia in Lanzarote that I hate from the deepest place of my soul. Even Mussolini would not have allowed this fascist architecture, because it is horrible, terrible! But there is hope. Berlin was destroyed in during the war, it has been rebuilt into an extraordinary city. Even though we destroy the Canary Islands, there is always hope from people with fantasies, good and enthusiastic people.”

Some resorts continued to grow, although with very few high rise buildings, thankfully, unlike other islands. You will still see some going up, such as in Arrecife. When Manrique died in 1992, the Fundación César Manrique was founded to continue his work and legacy. Not only are many of his stunning works part of this foundation, but the organisation also strives to highlight illegal building and development. In recent years they have brought to light a number of illegally built hotels. In 2014, Manrique would have delighted to see that the campaign to stop energy company Repsol digging for oil off the island led to a turnaround, and Repsol went AWOL.