Top Rated Attractions in Puerto del Rosario

Centro Bibliotecario Insular or CBI is one of the important libraries in town. This library has an extensive collection of books, journals, newsletters, newspapers, periodicals, magazines and other reading material. It also hosts cultural activities and book fairs on a regular basis. Call ahead for more details.

Javier Camarasa, an artist who has lived on the island for a number of years, is responsible for creating this large, vertically-standing sundial which measures three meters high and nine meters across and weighs ten tons. It has been erected in the middle of a roundabout that is constantly surrounded by the to and fro of automobiles. It is made of steel and concrete and features a huge steel and teflon weathervane consisting of four poles that measure seven meters in length. The sculpture seeks to represent and bring together the two most important natural elements that affect life on Fuerteventura - the sun and the wind.

The façade of this traditional old Canarian house gives no clues as to the treasure within. This is the house where the famous Spanish writer and thinker Miguel de Unamuno lived when he was exiled to Fuerteventura in 1924 by the dictator Primo de Rivera. The Island Council bought the property in 1983 and restored it to the way it was when Unamuno lived here. It's worth a visit, not just to see where the illustrious man of letters lived, but also to marvel at how much the island and its way of life has changed since then.

This church was built in the early 20th Century above the remains of an ancient chapel and it is dedicated to Nuestra Señora del Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary). It has been a parish church in its own right since 1906. The architect was an engineer of public works on the island called Ruperto González Negrín and he designed a distinctive tower for the building in honor of the Concepción Villalba family. The church once had a neoclassical altarpiece designed by Teófilo Martínez Escobar but it was destroyed in 1960 and has been replaced by one of more recent design. In 1992 the regional government of the Canary Islands officially declared this church to be a "Historic Monument." In the plaza next to the church there is a memorial statue in red sandstone by Ramón Concepción dedicated to those who died in the Spanish Civil War called the Cruz de los Caídos (Cross of the Fallen). Mass: 7.30pm Tue-Fri; 8pm Sat; 9am & 11am Sun. In summer, one hour later.

The Puerto del Rosario Nativity Scene is set up in the Plaza de la Paz every year at the beginning of December. This is a tradition that has been going for a few years now and brings together the Town Hall, local businesses and voluntary organizations who get together to present this scene from the bible in one of the town's main squares. The backdrop includes representations of well-known landscapes from the island itself with a foreground made up of biblical figures moulded out of papier maché, some of them measuring up to one and a half meters in height. Festive parades through the streets of the town are also held at this time of year.

A local artist called Francisco Ravelo who is also a teacher at the Art School (Escuela de Artes y Oficios Pancho Lasso) in Lanzarote is responsible for the gigantic sculpture that you'll find in the middle of the roundabout on the Avenida de la Constitución by the Plaza de la Paz. It represents three women joining arms to form a circle and his inspiration for the work came from a trip he made to Barcelona where he saw an exhibition of traditional Catalan Sardana dancing which involves the movement he depicts in this sculpture.