Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

Maritime Museum. Castle of La Luz

Castillo de la Luz is not only one of the most important buildings of the Las Palmas architectural heritage, but also a reminder of the historical memory of the Canary Islands. Its location on the Isleta, the point of arrival of the Castilian fleets in the 15th century when the first fort was built, was the reason for its existence and its defence role, which was maintained until the 19th century. The passage of time has had a profound effect on not only its use and conservation, but also its most immediate proximities: the old coastal fortress formerly surrounded by water at high tide is now surrounded by constructions in La Luz Harbour, the urban sprawl towards the Isleta.

The most ancient core is a small tower built at the end of the 15th century. A few years later, the initial volume was enlarged to shape the present square ground plan. The area between initial tower and the perimeter walls was banked to improve its defensive capacity against artillery. In spite of armed attacks in the late 15th century when it was sacked and burned, the shape of the fortress remained largely intact until the 20th century when, after falling into disuse and ruin, it was rebuilt in 1969.

How should we operate on a building with such an important historic value, and convert it into a maritime museum with the facilities and spaces required of a modern museum?

The history of La Luz Castle has inevitably become the script for this project. If the space between the outer walls and the turret have been filled with earth for five centuries, all we need to do is to empty it. We will recover the view of the original fortress and turn it into the highlight of the new museum. Interior spaces will ‘appear’, although they have actually always been there, hidden from view. We will reorganise and adapt the circulation system to its museum functions, inserting lightweight footbridges, a new staircase and a lift. We will remove all of the recently added elements which were not originally part of the building. We will cover the new zones with a concrete slab separated from the old tower, leaving slender fissures through which natural illumination can slip in.

Rather than reconstructing or renovating the Castle, we will have emptied it, we will have limited ourselves to making its past visible in the hope that, regardless of the collections to be housed inside, what will be on display will be the building and its history.

Outside we will dismantle a recently constructed false moat, which will free up a large area of land at the original level of the fortress and enable visitors to view it again in its real dimensions.

A new half-buried pavilion will make use of the slope produced by the city growth over the centuries. It will house the supplementary areas required by the museum- entrances, ticket sales, bookshop, toilets, equipment and multipurpose hall. The roof, a horizontal platform that barely emerges from the land, will be the only visible trace of an operation which strives not to compete against the castle it serves and complements.

xxspecialfeature:spanishmuseumsxx

Europaconcorsi Beta

Maritime Museum. Castle of La Luz