Castillo de Santa Bárbara

The Castillo de Santa Barbara is one of the symbols of the Teguise population in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. This strength was in principle simply a lookout tower built in the fifteenth century and whose aim was to spot possible attacks by pirate invasions, the person in charge of building it was Sancho de Herrera.

In the sixteenth century a series of improvements were made to the tower, which made it expand and became what is now known as Castillo de Santa Bárbara, served as shelter for the population of Teguise in case it was invaded.

In the 17th century the Castillo lost a bit of importance due to the construction of other fortifications in the port area of Arrecife. A century later, the pirate attacks had disappeared so that it ceased to have the strategic importance it had had until then. At the moment it has been given another type of utilities, since the beginning of the 90 until 2011 it was used as Ethnographic Museum of the Canary Immigrant until it was closed again. Currently Castillo de Santa Bárbara hosts the Piracy Museum, where you can get to know the most famous pirates and learn about the invasions suffered by the island in past centuries. .