Manriques Lanzarote
Around the world there are lots of wonderful places to enjoy a holiday. But not many of these destinations cannot come close to Lanzarote for cultural attractions. As this small Canary Island located off the African coast is the birthplace of a famous artist called César Manrique. Who created unique cultural attractions and who exerted an enormous influence on the islands development.
Many visitors to the island simply come for the almost guaranteed weather but Lanzarote has an often missed rich cultural background as well for anyone wishing to explore it,and with an excellent choice of holiday villas in Lanzarote there will be no shortage of holiday accommodation if you book early enough
Manrique´s imprint is everywhere on the island of his birth. Tourists leaving the airport encounter his massive bronze wind toy ´Homage to Pepin Ramirez´ as they depart from the arrivals hall and head for their Lanzarote villas and apartments. And on route they soon discover that there are no high rise buildings or advertising hoardings blotting the landscape either – as Manrique successfully campaigned to get these outlawed during the 1970´s.
Born in Arrecife, the islands capital, in 1919, Manrique fell in love with the island from a tender age. Thanks to the fact that his parents owned a holiday home in the beautiful northern beach resort of Famara, where they would all spend long summers together. With the young Manrique exploring rock pools and splashing in the tide, where he would delight in seeing the reflection of the Famara cliffs that flanked the bay.
The young Manrique went on to study art in Madrid, against his parent’s wishes, before becoming involved with the Spanish surrealist movement in the 1950´s. A brave move in Franco´s Spain at the time. Before heading off to New York under the patronage of the Rockefellers to study and exhibit there. Where he rubbed shoulders with contemporaries such as Andy Warhol.
Whilst the travel industry was developing well but still in it’s early days, it was generally the middle and upper class that enjoyed the luxury of travel with a majority of the population holidaying in their home countries. However the travel industry was about to go through a heady paradigm as the package holiday market was born making travel affordable to the masses. Of course the problem here was one of infrastructure and accommodation, and around the world a manic construction effort began to ensure there was enough accommodation to house the rapidly growing throngs of travellers eager to explore the attraction of foreign travel which was an extreme threat to the natural balance of Lanzarote.
It was clear to Manrique when he returned home that the idylic island lifestyle was about to change and whilst wanting to ensure that Lanzarote’s unique volcanic terrain would remain undisturbed Manrique was also aware that tourism was a necessary evil in order for the locals to survive, as until then fishing and agriculture had sustained the population. So he fought to ensure that resorts on the island would remain well contained on the south coast whilst also creating seven unique centres of art and culture around Lanzarote which remain the most popular attractions to this day.
More detailed information about available Lanzarote self catering apartments can be found on the Lanzarote1.com website.