Gáldar

Municipality

Ayuntamiento de Galdar
Capitán Quesada 29
35460 Gáldar
Tel. 928 88 00 50

Other localities in the Municipality

Municipality Information

Area: 67,60 km²
Population: 23.201
Height of the City: 124 MSL.
Highest point: 1.771 MSL.
Coastal length: 20,4 km.
Distance to Las Palmas: 27 km.

Tourist Information

Oficina de Turismo Gáldar
Plaza de Santiago 1
35460 Gáldar
Tel. 928 89 58 55
Fax. 928 55 03 94

Sightseeing

Map Gáldar

Estacion de Guaguas
Paseo de los Guanartemes
Gáldar
Tel. 928 88 02 32

Estacion Guaguas
Sardina
Tel. 928 88 01 85

See different routes:  Salcai/Utinsa Global.

Look under Worth Knowing - Pharmacy

Oficina de Correos
Jedaragua 1
35460 Galdar
Tel. 928 88 03 81

Biblioteca Pública Municipal de Gáldar
Tagoror 2
35460 Gáldar
Tel. 928 88 01 50
Fax. 928 55 03 94

Open Monday - Friday 18.00 - 20.00

Digital Library

Open Tuesday - Friday 10.00 - 16.00
Saturday - Sunday 10.00 - 13.00

After having been closed for 24 years, while work was performed and a gentle modernization was made, Cueva Pintada was reopened on the 27. of July 2006. The famous cave now appears a modern Museum Complex, showing a unique, historic part of Gran Canaria. Many people will visit, tourists as well as locals, and it is a must-do visit.

Cueva Pintada is a small cave with geometric paintings from the Guanches, which is unique on the island. It is located in the small town Gáldar, which was the seat of Gran Canarias ancient rulers at the time of conquest in 1478. The Spanish city was built over the aboriginal settlement and the cave lost.

The cave has several rooms which were used as cave houses by the Guanche. Several walls were built from basalt or tufa without mortar.  Bed and seat were also carved out of the soft rock.

In the caves mummies, tools and pottery were found. But the most famous finds were the drawings, that gave the cave its name. The paintings are red, black, and white squares, spirals, and triangles. The meaning of the paintings is not clear, some imagine symbols of female fertility the expression of religious beliefs. But maybe they are just simply for decoration.

This drawings/paintings are bleaching by the light, so the cave was closed several years ago. Another problem is irrigation water, oozing though the volcanic ash rock of the cave, is raising the humidity and destroys the paint.

The whole site, the cave and the ruins of the surrounding village, were restored during the last years. The paintings were covered by a special glass to protect them. A new museum was created, which shows the findings and - as a part of the visit - the view into the cave.

However, it is not possible to enter the cave, just a visit through the protecting glass is possible. There are computers in the museum which allow a virtual cave visit, and there is a new website which also allows a virtual visit. The virtual visit is a computer animated mpeg file though, and is obviously generated by the architect of the new museum building. Hopefully they will find the means to  change this soon, now the museum is reopened.

The Antonio Padrón house-museum in Gáldar is located in the painters former studio and belongs to a larger architectural complex that included the family dwelling, which is now separate from the museum premises.

Here, you can contemplate more than a hundred works by a Canarian artist, being one of the most representative artists of the indigenous movement.

Puerto Deportivo

Sardina del Norte
 

This little fishing village is very much underrated by the many tourists visiting the island who head for the busy south. However, this is the place where Canarian and Spanish families 'in the know' prefer to spend their leisure time. Sardina del Norte is situated close by the northern town of Gáldar and is also very popular among the divers of Gran Canaria. There are several cave dwellings which are now used as boathouses and seafood restaurants.

Opening hours: daily from 11.00 to 17.30
Closed Christmas and New Years day
 

Discover the only Zoo in Spain to exhibit the largest lizard in the world, "The Komodo dragon". The only Zoo in Europe where you can see this magnificent animal in a large natural outdoor terrarium.

Enjoy the biggest and most varied collection of reptiles in the whole world. Giant snakes, venomous snakes, 12ft crocodiles. lizards, taratula's etc. Over 150 species, 1000 animals, in over 10.000 m².

Observe the smallest and most endangered monkeys in the world. Golden lion tamarins, Pigmy marmosets, Lemurs from Madagascar, all together in one natural park just for you.

Snake and Dragon feeding, Sundays at 15.00 hour

Barranco de Galdar

Gáldar is known for being the first capital of Gran Canaria. The former town of Agáldar, the seat of several social and political institutions, was the main settlement of the territory of the island before the conquest by Spain. Because the leaders were recognised as Kings of the Canary Islands by the Castilian monarchs, Agáldar was acknowledged as the capital and as the birthplace and the court of the governing dynasty of the island. The municipality is also one of the main centres of the beginnings of Christianity in the Canary Island.

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