Santa María de Guía de Gran Canaria is a town and a municipality in

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spain, Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in th ...

province of the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

. It is located on the north side of

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa which is part of Spain. the island had a population of that co ...

island. Its population is (2013),Instituto Canario de Estadística
population and the area is . The town Santa María de Guía is situated in a valley from the coast, west of

. The municipality stretches from the coast into the mountainous interior of the island. The GC-2 motorway passes north of the town.

Toponimy

Currently the municipality takes its name from its municipal capital, combined the invocation of its primitive hermitage founded in honor of

Santa María de Guía Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnight ...

at the end of the fifteenth century. During the aboriginal stage of the island, which ends in the year 1483, the population nucleus received the denomination of ''Aguía'', corresponding to the existing population in the same location of the historical center and surroundings, and also near the aboriginal from '' Agaldar'', capital of a guanarteme chiefdom. This denomination was maintained until 1555, as indicated in the land and water distribution documents of Gran Canaria, granted after the European conquest of the island. After the European conquest, the historical nucleus was named as ''Villa de Guía'', simplifying as ''Guía'', and it remained that way throughout the colonial period, until the 19th century. Already in the 19th century begins to predominate the denomination of ''Guia de Gran Canaria'', within a stream of administrative modernization and especially to differentiate it from other homonymous populations such as

Guía de Isora Guía de Isora is a municipality in the western part of the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, and part of the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The population is 20,537 (2013 Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

. Already in the twentieth century and within the period of the

Franco dictatorship Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

, on December 28, 1962, the mayor of that time, Rafael Velázquez García, proposed to change the official name to that of ''Santa María de Guía'', incorporating the invocation of the Catholic religious temple existing in the municipality since the 16th century. The change was approved in full by the local corporation on April 26, 1963, subsequently obtaining the approval of the Island Council de

, which had been denied in the first instance, the change being to ''Santa María de Guía de Gran Canaria'' by agreement of the Council of Ministers of the Franco government on July 23, 1963. In 2008, the City Council promoted a debate from the municipal website for neighbors to express their opinion on whether or not to officially retake the name of ''Guía de Gran Canaria''.

Geography

Located in the north of Gran Canaria, the municipality has a triangular shape, which places its vertex towards the south, near the caldera of the Pinos de Gáldar. To the east it borders the municipality of Moya defined by Barranco de Moya until its mouth. To the west, the division follows some channels, surrounds the Pico de La Atalaya or Gáldar mountain, and continues to the coast, dividing the Pico de la Atalaya in two. The coastline is defined between Caleta de Arriba until the mouth of the Barranco de Moya. The coasts are rocky due to erosion, cliffs predominate, although with exceptions such as San Felipe beach, which in summer is covered with sand.

Climatology

The climatic conditions of Santa María de Guía derive from its northern position. Thus, there are three altitudinal steps, which are: * The coastal zone, which reaches up to 300 meters; * The medians between 300 and 600 meters; * The high zone, from 600 meters. As it enters the interior of the island the number of sunny days per year is less; It rains more and temperatures are generally lower.

Population

Heritage sites

The

caves of Valerón Valerón's "monastery" (in Spanish ''cenobio de Valerón'') is an archaeological site on the Spanish island of Grand Canary, in the municipality of Santa Maria de Guia, on Valerón's cliff. It is the largest pre-Hispanic collective granary

, also called ''cenobio de Valerón'', is a

property of cultural interest Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

in the "archaeological site" category. It is the largest pre-Hispanic collective granary. Its size is representative of Gran Canaria agriculture, unique among the Canaries islands in that it was traditionally dominated by plantations, with much of these being grains, rather than by stock-breeding.Cenobio de Valeron
section "''El yacimiento arqueologico''". On ''arqueologiacanaria.com''. The Quintana House is a sample of the ancient architecture of the municipality of Guia de Gran Canaria in the Canarian island of Gran Canaria, located in the Plaza Mayor de Guía and its buildings date from the

16th century The 16th century begins with the Julian year 1501 ( MDI) and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian year 1600 ( MDC) (depending on the reckoning used; the Gregorian calendar introduced a lapse of 10 days in October 1582). The 16th cent ...

. The Canarian balcony is of Mudejar style, in wood and coat of arms with the surnames Guanarteme and Quintana.

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

mancomunidaddelnorte.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Maria de Guia de Gran Canaria Municipalities in Gran Canaria