Betancuria

Betancuria Canary is a municipality belonging to the province of Las Palmas. Situated on the west coast of the island of Fuerteventura.

In the chapel of Vega de Rio Palmas is the image of Nuestra Senora de la Pena, patron saint of Fuerteventura. In September there is a pilgrimage in honor of great popular participation.

Another population center is the Valle de Santa Ines (where the Chapel of St. Agnes was built shortly after the conquest).   The village also has a Museum of Sacred Art and the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography.

With 715 inhabitants it is the least populous municipality in the Canary Islands (2008).

Church Betancuria

Alabaster image of the Virgen de la Pena (Patrona de Fuerteventura)
It is named after the Norman, John de Bethencourt, who founded it together with Gadifer La Salle in 1404.  Betancuria Valley was the first settlement on the island. Since the conquest, Betancuria became the capital and headquarters of various government bodies, religious groups and administrative bodies (council, courts, etc).

In 1593 it was virtually wiped out by the Berber invasion which destroyed the Cathedral Church of St. Mary Betancuria, but it was rebuilt years later.

From the nineteenth century, Betancuria was losing power to the other villages due to their economic development (Pajara, La Oliva, Antigua and Puerto de Cabras). Finally in 1834, it lost the capital of the island.