Photography: Javier Fuentes
Relics from the forties, military telegraphs, air traffic regulations, beacons from the fifties, ... Although it will not be open to the public until after Christmas, this Monday the Aeronautical Museum of the Lanzarote Airport was officially inaugurated, facilities that have been built precisely in the building of the old Guacimeta terminal, created in 1946 and which remained in operation until 1970.
Multiple authorities at the inauguration thanked the effort made by both previous generations and the Recovery Committee, established in 1997 and which for eight years has been carrying out important work.
Thanks to this work, which has also been supported by the Cabildo and the City Council of San Bartolomé, the longed-for dream of the aeronautical museum is now a reality for the Island, allowing a better understanding of the recent history of Lanzarote, while "rescuing for public use a building of incalculable value, which has now been given an interpretive and informative function", as highlighted by the airport director, Dionisio Canomanuel, who insisted that the Museum will also serve to promote Aena's activity and describe the tourist projection and airport perspectives.
Culture in the Museum
The Museum is presided over in its main hall by an original mural by the Belgian painter Jean P. Hock, and by a reproduction of the acrylic "Lanzarote", with which in 1953 César Manrique perfectly captured, by commission, as if it was a film, the geography, astronomy, nature, people and origins of an island that was already beginning to be impregnated with what it is today.
The original engraving of this reproduction is in the César Manrique Foundation (FCM), an institution that has committed itself together with Aena to recover for such an emblematic space, once restored, one of the works that served the Lanzarote artist to make himself known.
The attendees encouraged all the people of Lanzarote to contribute their grain of sand with new initiatives, and to visit facilities that date back to 1946 and that, equipped with objects exhibited in panels and showcases, collections of models of aircraft from different eras, old photographs, videos, projectors of historical images and touch screens, will revive in the visitor endearing memories that will serve to preserve the aeronautical heritage and illuminate the future of air transport in Lanzarote.
Didactic memories
Among others, Dionisio Canomanuel, director of the Guacimeta airport, was present at the inauguration; Cipriano Nieto, one of his predecessors in the position; Marcial Martín, island director of the State Administration in Lanzarote; Inés Rojas, president of the Cabildo; Juan Antonio De la Hoz, Councilor for Culture of the City Council of San Bartolomé; and the colonel chief of the Guacimeta military aerodrome, in addition to many other authorities and representatives of the State Security Forces and Corps and the Army.
In his speech, Marcial Martín evoked his own childhood, when it was a pleasure to pass through the old airport infrastructures on the journey between Arrecife and Güime and the soldiers of the time gave sweets to the children. The Museum, in the words of the island director, who asked that the main source of income for the Island be pampered, "represents the economic and social development of the Island in the last sixty years".
For her part, the president of the Cabildo, Inés Rojas, recalled the work of José Ramírez, who succeeded her in office years ago, as well as the contribution of the promoters of the idea. The leader emphasized the differences between "what this building was formerly and the piece of airport and its infrastructures appropriate for a Lanzarote of today".
The Councilor De la Hoz recalled the trajectory of cultural recovery by the City Council of San Bartolomé, first with the creation of a Historical and Heritage Archive, and now with its contribution to this airport project, so linked from its birth to the municipality.
Museum Structure
Almost the entire building is part of the tour dedicated to the visit, including the old control tower and the check-in area, as well as the outdoor garden area and access to the first parking platform of the Airport.
The building, which offers visitors interactive and participatory possibilities thanks to audiovisual, computer and multimedia applications, has two floors. In the upper part, you can see the place where the control tower, the communications and meteorology room were located, and in the lower part is the space where the baggage and passenger check-in, the main hall and services such as the cafeteria, the travel agency and the gift shop were previously located.
The different rooms, up to a total of eleven, are connected by arches and have a thematic character: room 0: reception; room 1: regional history, the beginnings; room 2: the first flights from Lanzarote; room 3: the first passenger terminal 1946-1970; rooms 4 and 5: audiovisuals; room 6: transport and communications; room 7: aeronautics, general and particular history; room 8: Tourism, transport, airport; room 9: control tower; room 10: meteorology;
After Christmas, specifically on January 9, the Museum will open its doors with guided and free visits, both for school groups and for tourists, residents and specific groups, from Tuesday to Sunday and from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
