The Local Police are investigating several attacks against the heritage of Teguise. As will be recalled a few days ago, the Castle of Santa Bárbara, a historic fortress that stands on the mountain of Guanapay, woke up with several marks in the form of scratches on the ancient walls of one of the oldest buildings in the Canary Islands.
To this incident is added another in the bathrooms of La Mareta. According to reports from the Consistory, this Monday the Police headquarters was alerted by the municipal cleaning services when the bathrooms were found burned by small fires supposedly caused in the sink area and in the interiors of the bathrooms. Likewise, the Villa's picnic area, located on the hillside of the same mountain of Guanapay, has also been showing damage to its outdoor facilities for weeks, the product of deliberate acts that are repeated once the picnic area is returned to normal with cleaning and maintenance work.
Oswaldo Betancort, on behalf of the entire Corporation, has condemned the aforementioned acts of vandalism that threaten the historical and cultural heritage of Teguise. “The first thing is to prosecute this type of criminal acts so that they do not happen again and increase surveillance at all sensitive points on the island.”
In this sense, Betancort believes that “Lanzarote requires a Heritage Surveillance Office, since there are many assets to protect at the island level”. “The competences of the Cabildo's Heritage area in terms of restoration, rehabilitation, research and dissemination, must include surveillance services for our assets of cultural interest”, he adds. However, and with regard to the cultural management of the Castle of Santa Bárbara, the Teguise City Council has announced that, once it reopens its doors to the public after the rehabilitation and heritage recovery work valued at almost 1.3 million euros, the fortress, which has 33 new exterior lighting points, will also have surveillance cameras to prevent any type of attack.
On the other hand, Betancort also recognizes that “the institutions must commit to safeguarding and protecting cultural heritage by raising awareness among the population of its value, designing more actions that make visible the importance of our cultural heritage as we have always sought from Teguise.”