I had seen Lanzarote's coat of arms on several occasions, especially on posters for events organized by the Cabildo de Lanzarote. I was intrigued by its design so I searched for more information, and this is what I found:

The design consists of two large gold cauldrons in the centre with a border of another ten smaller gold cauldrons against a red background. Originally the cauldrons were supposed to be checked in black and gold, but they have always been depicted fully in gold.

It represents the coat of arms of the Herrera lineage, one of their branches had the "Señorío" (Lordship), afterwards "Marquesado" of Lanzarote - hence the Marchis' crown on top of the crest.

The title of Marquis of Lanzarote dates back to the 16th century, which  read more »

I wondered what the tradition ”Rancho de Pascua” was as it is mentioned on most of the Fiestas de Navidad programmes in Lanzarote.

The tradition dates back to the end of the 15th century and is also referred to as Ranchos de Ánimas. Ánimas is derived from the latin word almas which means souls. Los Ranchos were religious groups that travelled through the towns singing sad songs, collecting donations and praying for the deceased.

The Rancho choirs would leave on the 1st November (Todos los Santos), and travel through to the 2nd of February (Día de la Candelaria).

The traditional songs of the Canarian Ranchos are Spanish with some Arabic  read more »

A photographic exhibition entitled La Isla Sumergida from Javier Reyes Acuña was inaugurated at the MIAC (Museum of International and Contemporary Art) on Friday 26th November 2010. Javier is a prolific photographer and his extensive collection offers an amazing insight into the hardships of post war life in Lanzarote between 1943 and 1972.

Many of his photographs can be seen online through the website Memoria de Lanzarote and on this You Tube video.

Javier Reyes was born in Haría in 1926  read more »

Have you ever wanted to know more about what Lanzarote was like before the volcanic eruptions from 1730 – 1736?

The Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Medio Rural y Marino have published a new book containing the history of Timanfaya in Lanzarote. The book entitled “Timanfaya: historia y territorio antes del volcán” has been published in Spanish and contains maps and photographs detailing the geography of the land before the eruptions and the evolution of it since.

The first part of the book details the territory before the eruption, explaining the physical and archaeological characteristics of the island. In the second section there is a study about the culture and infrastructure that existed in the area before the eruption. Another part is called "La isla destruida por los volcanes del siglo XVIII" which translates to the island destroyed by volcanoes in the 18th Century and looks at the reconstruction of the island after the eruptions.  read more »

Lanzarote still has several remaining windmills (los molinos) although a few of these are now in ruins. The Lanzaroteños grew maize, which after harvesting was toasted and then taken to the local mill for crushing to create their staple diet of gofio.  The mills were also used to crush barley, wheat and chick peas to create flours (frangollo, millo & trigo).

The mills can vary in height as they could have one or two floors. The millo tostado (roasted corn) was taken inside up the stairs to the top of the building and poured into a special wooden funnel (tolba), which dropped the corn bit by bit onto the huge lava rock millstone with a central hole, underneath this stone would be a similar round stone but static.

The wind would turn the sails which could be turned to harness the direction of the wind, the sails moved a series of gears which then transmitted the power to the top millstone to crush and grind the toasted corn into the gofio powder, this would then pour out of a chute to the floor below where it could be sacked.

If there was a lower floor of the mill, this would be the warehouse (almacen).  read more »

There has been much interest in the pre hispanic settlers of the Canary Islands, just where did the Guanches originate from?

Recent advances in technology have now made it possible to carry out detailed genetic studies, using indigenous and historical 17th-18th century remains and mitochondrial DNA as a female marker.   read more »

Earlier this year the Telegraph ran an article asking if this image on Google Ocean could be the lost city of Atlantis?

The image does look remarkably like a grid of streets and in the area that Atlantis was believed to have existed. The criss cross of lines are situated 620 miles off the coast of North West Africa, close to the Canary Islands. It’s hard for us to imagine the size of the image, the rectangle shown is about the size of Wales! The image can be found at the co-ordinates 31 15'15.53N 24 15'30.53W.  read more »

This short video produced by Memoria de Lanzarote shows Arrecife changing through the 20th Century.  read more »