History

Lanzarote was the first of the Canary Islands to be settled by European navigators in their attempt of colonisation of the archipelago. Finally, it was Jean de Bethencourts’s expedition in 1402 that claimed the island for the kingdom of Castile. In those times, Lanzarote had a native population of some 300 people. Lanzarote owes its name to a Genovese navigator called Lancelotto Malocello, who arrived on the island in the second half of the 14th century, and who, like the French, the British, the Dutch and the Spanish, made continuous expeditions around the archipelago.

The island’s capital, Arrecife, is its administrative and commercial centre, and home to half its population. The island’s international airport, with daily flights to the other islands of the archipelago and the Spanish mainland, and periodic connections with many European cities, is five minutes drive from the capital.

Agriculture and fishing were Lanzarote’s main industries and means of subsistence, but these have both lost ground to tourism, which has developed high quality facilities and services.

To reflect the history of the island’s rich and glorious past, you will find its castles and fortifications, its hermitages and churches, its mansions and traditional white houses.

Monitoring work carried out on the island to preserve its history and its past has involved keeping alive the traditional occupations and craftsman’s trades, the typical household cuisine, the architecture and design sympathetic with the island’s past and character, a great concern for its historical and artistic heritage, for its monuments and grand houses, its festivals and popular customs…in short, reflections of its culture and folklore.

The particular development model on the island, with sustained economic growth yet with clear protection and conservation of nature and environment, has led to Lanzarote being declared a World Reserve of the Biosphere by UNESCO in 1993, definite confirmation of the islanders’ long and extensive work to maintain one of their best-defined and most characteristic traits, their on-going interest in the conservation of their natural settings.