Jardín de Cactus

The Jardín de Cactus is a garden in Guatiza, in the north-east of Lanzarote, and it is one of the final works of the artist and architect César Manrique, who shaped so much of the island’s look and its approach to tourism. He created it at the end of the 1980s and it opened in 1991. Manrique’s principle was to work with the landscape and not against it, and here he took an abandoned quarry, where volcanic sand had been dug for use on farmland, and turned the hollow into an amphitheatre of terraces filled with cacti and succulents.

The setting matters. Guatiza is known across the Canary Islands for its fields of prickly pear, or tuna, which were planted in the nineteenth century to feed the cochineal insect, from which a red dye called carmine was made. The dye industry made the village prosperous, and cochineal is still produced in small quantities. A small windmill stands at the entrance to the garden, and the road to it runs through the silvery green of the prickly pear plantations. The abandoned quarry in which the garden sits is part of that agricultural history.

Inside, the garden is organised in a spiral of stone terraces, with paths and steps that go down the walls of the quarry towards a central fountain and an open-air circular amphitheatre. The cacti are arranged by form and origin, and the collection contains thousands of plants from many species, gathered from five continents, with a strong emphasis on those from the Americas and from the Canary Islands themselves. The plants include barrel cacti with golden spines, tall columns, spiny spheres and paddle-shaped prickly pears, and some of the large agaves and euphorbias rise above the terraces. Estanislao González Ferrer, a specialist in cactus species, is credited with helping to build the collection. The dark volcanic stone, the black soil and the green plants create a striking contrast, and the light and shadows change through the day.

The garden has a cafeteria and a tapas shop, which look over the terraces, and a small area where cactus products and souvenirs are sold. The site is open daily during the day, and the last entry is a little before closing, so check the current times. A visit takes about an hour.

The Jardín de Cactus is close to other sites of Manrique’s work, such as the Fundación César Manrique, the Jameos del Agua and the Cueva de los Verdes, so it fits easily into a day driving round the island. The garden is reached by bus or by car, and the road passes through Teguise.