Santa Barbara Castle: A Sixteenth-Century Fortress on Lanzarote
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Very High
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Genoese, Spanish
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page8 sections
History
Santa Barbara Castle is a Spanish fortification near Teguise on Lanzarote, Spain, whose present form was designed in the late sixteenth century around an angled, diamond-shaped defensive plan. It occupies the site of an earlier tower associated with the Genoese navigator and explorer Lanzarotto Malocello, linking the castle’s history with the medieval European rediscovery of the Canary Islands.
The Earlier Tower
Malocello reached Lanzarote in 1291, although historians more commonly place his arrival in 1312. He built an earlier tower on the site, but the island’s indigenous inhabitants expelled him about twenty years later. The tower then fell into disuse. In 1402, Jean de Béthencourt, a Norman nobleman who led the early fifteenth-century Castilian conquest of parts of the Canary Islands, found the remains of the earlier fortification.
Construction and Strengthening
Construction of the castle’s early diamond-shaped towers began in 1571. In 1588, Leonardo Torriani designed the present castle on the orders of Philip II of Spain, who reigned from 1556 to 1598. Agustín de Herrera y Rojas later strengthened the fortification.
Abandonment and Restoration
After Santa Barbara Castle lost its defensive function, it was abandoned. The Amigos de los Castillos association carried out an initial restoration in 1960, followed by a further restoration by the Spanish government in 1977. The castle now houses the Museum of Piracy.
Remains
Volcanic Setting and Fortification
Castle Site
The castle stands on the edge of the crater of Guanapay Volcano near Teguise, at an elevation of approximately 452 metres. Its setting is volcanic, with relatively open, scrub-covered terrain. The landscape becomes more hilly to the east and flatter to the west.
Diamond-Shaped Towers
The early towers had a diamond-shaped, or lozenge-plan, layout. This form organized the fortification around angled sides rather than a simple rectangular outline. An earlier tower associated with Lanzarotto Malocello remains near the castle site, preserving a physical link with the fortification’s earliest phase.
Nearby sites
