Castillo de La Virgen

The building belongs to the Bajada de la Virgen de las Nieves, the lustral festival Santa Cruz de La Palma holds every five years. The first records of the present castle date from 1765, when the fortification was mocked up in wood to raise a façade and crenellated walls for the occasion. In late 1819 the merchant José Gabriel Martín paid out of his own pocket for the terrace and the storehouse of what was then called the Gran Fuerte de la Amable Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, and fitted it with twenty one small iron cannon used to fire salutes. Its present shape comes from the municipal restoration of 1995.

The name makes sense once you look down. At every Bajada the fortress calls out from the top of the cliff to the ship that pretends to approach along the floor of the ravine, and that exchange is the Dialogue between the Castle and the Ship. Outside the festival it works as a calm viewpoint over the tiled roofs and carved wooden balconies of the old town, over the harbour and out to open water. You walk up from the centre along the Camino del Castillo, a short but steep climb that asks for decent shoes and some water. Do not confuse it with the Castillo de Santa Catalina, which guards the harbour entrance.