The impressive Gabinete Literario, with its beautiful structure that amazes visitors and makes islanders well up with emotion, is one of the most iconic and postcard-perfect images of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Designed in 1919 by the architects Fernando Navarro and Rafael Massanet, this building, with an undisputed cultural background, has been a Historic and Artistic Monument and an Asset of Cultural Interest since 1985. Its two towers, each topped by a dome, large windows and stunning facade, all classifying it as one of the most paradigmatic representations of Canarian Art Nouveau, ensure that this building is one of the city’s heritage treasures.

Its location is also a permanent reminder of the cultural boom experienced by the capital of Gran Canaria, among other reasons, because the Gabinete Literario is in Plaza de Cairasco de Figueroa. Named after Bartolomé Cairasco de Figueroa, the square pays homage to one of the founders of Canarian literature in the 16th century. Cairasco de Figueroa—born in the city in 1538, when the nascent metropolis, founded in 1478, was not yet even a century old—was a well-known poet, dramatist and musician at the time whose work included elements of Canarian culture.

Cairasco was heavily involved in contemporary events: he helped defend the capital of Gran Canaria against the assault by the Englishman Drake and he negotiated the recovery of the settlement with another privateer, the Dutchman Pieter Van der Does, who had razed it to the ground during his attack. He became prior of the Cathedral of Plaza de Santa Ana (where he was buried in the Chapel of Santa Catalina), chief accountant of the Island Council and a figure to emulate in the young city’s political, civilian and literary circles. He organised literary gatherings and wrote from a Canarian perspective, embracing island indigenous characters and the landscapes and settings of his homeland.

Today Cairasco de Figueroa continues to enjoy the hustle and bustle of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in a busy area: his bust, sculpted by Paolo di Ferdinando Triscornia in 1894, and surrounded by a small circular garden, acts as a prelude to the facade of the Gabinete Literario.

His square lies right next to the Barranco del Guiniguada gorge where the capital of Gran Canaria first expanded, near the Calle Mayor de Triana and its district, with architecture that is markedly Art Nouveau. This is the same style embodied by the Gabinete Literario building, which was originally constructed using the plan drawn up by the architect López Echegarreta in 1883. In the beginning it was used as a theatre—the Cairasco—until the building became too small for a local society eager for new cultural facilities and used to being connected to the continent’s latest trends due to the regular journeys artists made between Europe and America, and the constant transit of merchants and travellers with refined tastes.

That was why a new coliseum was needed. Built near the seafront and originally called Tirso de Molina, it became known as the Pérez Galdós Theatre from the start of the 20th century when it was named after a native writer of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Benito Pérez Galdós.

But before this, the society of the Literary Circle of Development and Leisure of Las Palmas was founded in 1844. At first, it used one of the rooms in the Cairasco Theatre. Later it took on the ownership of the building and over the years it promoted the architectural alterations devised by Navarro and Massanet. Today the Literary Circle continues operating as a non-profit organisation driving the cultural scene in its surrounding area from an impressive symbol.

Also worth a mention are the building’s interiors, a real display of impeccable Art Nouveau decor and another heritage treasure of the capital of Gran Canaria. Its rooms, collection of paintings, majestic central staircases and its air of a bygone era have even attracted the attention of notable film productions and television series, which have often shot scenes in its locations.

The initiative behind the creation of the society was down to the local middle class and foreigners who had settled on the island. Indeed, its first chairman was the Englishman Robert Houghton-Houghton Warrand, or, as he was better known, Roberto Houghton. His background gives us clues as to the enormous influence wielded by the British in forming the island’s society during this period of its history. Houghton was the British vice-consul in Gran Canaria and a Lloyd’s agent involved in the cochineal trade. However, he was also a faithful representative of middle-class tastes and trends in need of an institution such as the one he helped establish.

The current Gabinete Literario of Las Palmas is certainly indispensable for understanding the growth of cultural interests in the city. From the start, it shied away from becoming merely a recreational institution to promote artistic, cultural and scientific advances, along the lines of cultured schools of thought at that time. Understanding Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as it is today would be impossible without the Gabinete Literario. Because, given its appearance and the charm of its location—Plaza de Cairasco—not imagining the capital of Gran Canaria as unique in the broad spectrum of Atlantic culture would be inconceivable.