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SPAIN | Fuerteventura, Spain Travel Guide
Saturday, December 21, 2024
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Betancuría
Betancuría
Local islanders tend to agree that Betancuría, in the crux of low mountains near Fuerteventura’s west coast, is the loveliest village on the island. It is also one of the earliest areas of settlement. In the local Museo de Betancuría, archeological and ethnological exhibitions are dedicated to the native Guanches who established one of their earliest communities in the area. Nearly a thousand years later, work on the village’s Catedral de Santa María was begun soon after the village had been founded in the early 15th century. Originally fashioned in a Gothic-Norman style, little more than the bell tower survives in the rehabilitated 17th-century catedral. The Norman influence is also evident in the name Betancuría, taken from the French colonizer Jean de Bethencourt who, finding no success in conquering the neighboring islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, instead focused his attention on the two nearby islands. After conquering Lanzarote, Bethencourt’s troops began to make incursions into Fuerteventura, where they eventually established Betancuría as the early capital.
Last updated February 20, 2012
Posted in Spain | Fuerteventura
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