The Canarian Museum

Find out everything about Gran Canaria’s indigenous population – the ancient culture of La Guancha

The Museo Canario was founded in 1879 and serves mainly studies concerning the island’s Spanish and pre-Spanish history. In this scientific and cultural institution are over 11 rooms where valuable archeological objects for the Canarian history are exhibited.

Each room is dedicated to one specific topic or period. A collection of minerals that contains all kinds of stones found on the Canary Islands, an archive of old see charts and other maps and a library consisting of more than 40,000 issues of all Canarian newspapers ever published are particularly fascinating in the museum.

Among others, it is the museum’s purpose to raise awareness among locals and tourists for the history and fate of Gran Canaria’s indigenous people, the Guancha. According to experts the indigenous Canarians used to live and move freely in remote parts of the island for more than 2,500 years (from 1,000 BC to 1,500 AD). Fossil records, documents, tools, models of habitations, clothes, mummies and figures of ancient deities only show a fragment of how particular the culture was and is entirely vanished today.

One of the major attractions in the Museo Canario is definitely the reproductions of ancient cave paintings of the Cueva Pintada. The original paintings can be found in a cave in the north of the island, today’s district Galdar. Unfortunately, all boards explaining the art objects are exclusively in Spanish.

Part of the museum is also a documentation center that contains the museum’s own library, newspaper archives and archives of various other historic documents. The center emphasizes all aspects of Canarian history and includes a vast range of items that facilitate research of the Canary Islands.

Address: Dr. Verneau2, Vegueta,
Hompage: www.elmuseocanario.com

Phone: 0034 928 336 800
Fax: 0034 928 336 801
Email: info@elmuseocanario.com

Opening Hours and Exhibition
Monday – Friday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Opening Hors Library and Archives
Monday – Friday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Closed on Saturday, Sunday, January 1 and December 25.