Pueblos con Encanto / Charming Canary Towns ~ Agüimes

It's been ages since I wrote about another Charming Gran Canaria village!
As I have said so many times, I am a bit saddened that so many people think Gran Canaria
is just a tourist circus with no personality and nothing genuine to offer.

So, in my quest to show some of the real Gran Canaria, today I thought I'd talk about Agüimes. There's a lot of history here, and it's a beautiful little town, definitely worth a visit when in Gran Canaria. I have brought most my visitors there and everyone have been charmed by the picturesque streets and plazas, and all the sculptures all over the town.

More than thousand years ago, Agüimes already existed and was inhabited by native Canarians. After the Spanish conquest of the island about 500 years ago, the old stone houses were adapted to a more modern European way of living, or simply torn down to be replaced by newer, different houses (which can now be seen in the old part of the town).
In the 16th century, when Gran Canaria had been conquered, the first colonies settled around the church. As the town grew, the old and new buildings coexisted with gardens and courtyards, and slowly but certainly the town grew into a little maze of winding, narrow streets.

There is a neat little museum in the centre of the town which explains all about the towns history, the way of building and living in pre-conquest times. Entrance is free, and information is in Spanish, English and German. In the museum you can see a recreation of a typical outdoor pre-conquest settlement in this area of the island.

The town is beautiful and something that surprises the tourists is all the sculptures all around the town ...

... the most famous one being the camel. So random, but so cool.

The church is like the icing on the cake of this town (as many other small beautiful towns when I think about it!)

The town at a distance:

If you're interested, I have previously written about the beautiful villages of Arucas, Agaete, and Teror.