Culture

The development and the actual configuration of Lanzarote cannot be understood without an awareness of the architectural and public space works of César Manrique, an artist of international renown. Due to his endless imagination and his love for the place where he was born, the island was kept away from development trends of the 1960’s, and its people have adopted the theory of balance that combines elements for tourism and for the preservation of the environment.

It was in New York, in the mid-1970’s that César Manrique created the Art, Culture and Tourism Centres of the Council of Lanzarote, which are related to the economic development of the island, making it an incomparable tourist destination. Together with the Insular Goverment, whose president, José Ramirez, was a very good friend, Manrique promoted the setting up of the seven tourist centres that exist in Lanzarote.

In those years, Public Institutions invested in infrastructure and comunications, while always conserving nature and the natural and cultural heritage of the island. At the same time, the artist was afraid uncontrolled speculation would make it necessary to bring in some form of regulations to control town planning, emphasizing the aesthetic values of the island.

The society has become aware of this, and this idea still prevails on the island. Manrique was aware that, due to natural beauty of the Lanzarote landscape, it could become the main source of wealth and, because of its fragility, it could also be badly affected. To avoid the latter, the artist combined the creation of attractive elements for the visitors with the preservations of the landscape. Nowadays, this is known as Sustained Development, a concept that combines the preservation of natural and cultural values with the evolution and growth of prosperity.

In the mid 1960’s, Manrique began to outline an integrated development plan for Lanzarote. In his letters from New York, he was interested in the negotiations to purchase Saint Joseph Castle (Castillo de San José) and, at the same time, commented that he was getting advice to carry out all the projects he had created for Lanzarote, such as the Mill of Arrecife and the works on the Islet of Love, that were never finished. In any case, everyone agrees that Manrique was firmly committed to creating a complete cultural and touristic project and keep away the ghost of town planning disasters that happened in other parts of the island and on the Iberian Peninsula.

When César Manrique finally came back to the island in 1966, he started with his public space projects where he combined landscape, architectural and design elements. This resulted in the establishment of the Seven Centres of Art, Culture and Tourism: The Modem Museum of Art Saint Joseph Castle, ‘Jameos del Agua’, ‘The Cave of Los Verdes’, the Mirador del Rio the restaurant ‘The Devil’ in the ‘Fire Mountains’, the House museum and Monument to the Peasant and the ‘Cactus Garden’.

The impact of César’s philosophy was defined by the declaration of Lanzarote as World Reserve of the Biosphere by the UNESCO in 1993, a year after his death.