The pirates of the Actúa Company entered the Castle of Santa Bárbara this Wednesday, while the students of the IES of La Villa de Teguise and other visitors learned about the two new rooms that were opened to the public this Wednesday and which represent a new historical and tourist attraction for this museum center of interest that is visited by more than 40,000 visitors every year. In this way, the City Council inaugurated its new facilities and also commemorated the International Museum Day, for which it organized an open day, both in this museum and in the timple museum.
At the top of the Castle, the artist Matías Mata (Sabotaje al Montaje), performed an artistic representation in honor of the pirates and the native fauna in the Piracy Museum, which celebrated its first five years of life in February 2016. The walls of the Crew Room display the work of the Lanzarote graffiti artist, dedicated to animals characteristic of the islands converted into pirates.
The Bodega, a replica of an old pirate galleon, is another of the new exhibition spaces that the mayor of Teguise, Oswaldo Betancort, the Councilor for Culture, Olivia Duque, and the Island Councilor for Culture, Óscar Pérez, inaugurated on the occasion of Museum Day, accompanied by the students of the IES de La Villa and the theatrical performance.
"The objective of these two new rooms is to offer a different experience and the possibility of getting to know the museum in a creative, multidisciplinary and fun way, taking into account its trajectory as a didactic and educational center," the City Council highlighted. "Our historical buildings are at the service of society and its development, and open to the public so that they can learn about the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity that Teguise houses," declared the mayor. "Today the pirates invade us again to highlight the commitment of the Teguise City Council to investigate, conserve, exhibit and transmit our historical legacy and the message of pride in being a municipality called Teguise," added Oswaldo Betancort during the presentation, which was attended by the highest authority of culture in Lanzarote, Óscar Pérez, who highlighted the work that is carried out at the municipal level from Teguise to "highlight its historical and cultural wealth."
In that sense, Olivia Duque, as Councilor for Culture, congratulated all those who have participated in this project "which seeks to value a unique center such as the Castle of Santa Bárbara and the Piratic Museum that it houses, with which we not only communicate our history to tourists but also offer a didactic work to our young people." Olivia Duque also highlighted the five years that the Timple House-Museum has been in existence, which opened its doors this Wednesday for free to commemorate this day.
Presentation of the book ‘Alí, the Canary Islander’
The Piracy Museum also hosted the presentation of Moisés Morán's book, "Alí, the Canary Islander", a novel that tells the life story of Simón Romero, better known as Alí the Canary Islander, one of the most important corsairs of the 17th century who sailed the seas of the Mediterranean and Atlantic, reaching the coasts of Portugal.
Alí Romero, who was also known by this name, was born in 1639 on Triana Street in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands and at the age of 16 he was captured by an Algerian corsair while fishing on the Berber coasts in Africa.
Thanks to his courage and skill, he managed to make a name for himself among the corsairs, bought his freedom and began to work as a corsair in Algiers. Over time he converted to Islam and built his own ship, which he called the Canary Islander. He gained the trust of the Pasha of Algiers and he appointed him head of the taifa of the Algerian corsairs and shortly after he was appointed Grand Admiral of the Algerian Navy and was also ambassador of Algiers to Turkey on two occasions.
He maintained a very special relationship with the Canary Island slaves who were in Algiers and corresponded with the Bishop of the Canary Islands D. Bartolomé García Ximénez de Rabadán to resolve issues related to the Canary Island slaves.
An impregnable refuge against pirate attacks
The fortress of Santa Bárbara located on the Guanapay volcano is the product of several interventions that have their beginnings in the mid-fifteenth century when Agustín de Herrera y Rojas decided to make an impregnable refuge against the pirate attacks that Lanzarote constantly suffered. The Castle not only had the mission of being a watchtower from which to spot the pirate dangers coming from the sea, but its dependencies served as a refuge for the population, a dungeon for prisoners and even a military dovecote.
Thus, from the Consistory they point out that Lanzarote was the island most threatened by international piracy, so the Museum has been divided into two historical blocks, one on the study of piracy in Teguise, another on international piracy in the Canary Islands. In the first rooms the history of Teguise, as the old capital, a model of the urban area shows the political, military and religious power of the Villa de Teguise, where most of the island's population was located, therefore they suffered for centuries days of raiding invaders, who came mainly in search of slaves.
In a second room, the most important lootings that the island of Lanzarote experienced from 1551 to 1618 are studied, Berber pirates such as Morato Arráez, Tabac Arráez and Soliman. The visit also includes a "Trades in Teguise" Room, with comics, caricatures and small sculptures that show the type of population that existed in this historical period.
In the narrow corridors of the Castle are international pirates such as John Hawkins, Francis Drake, Robert Blake etc, the weapons room, reproductions of blunderbusses, sabers and cannons typical of pirates, a model of an old Spanish galleon from the 18th century with 106 cannons, which reflects that Spanish ships were the best armed in the world, with vast equipment to defend themselves from pirate boarding.
"Because the Canary Islands are an archipelago located at the crossroads of American routes, it has been a favorable scenario for international piracy since the discovery of America. This is the exhibition message of the Piracy Museum in Teguise, which today incorporates two new rooms: Crew and Bodega," concludes the Consistory.