Cactus Garden in Lanzarote

This cactus garden represents a magnificent example of how architecture can be interwoven into the landscape. César Manrique created this architectural complex which maintains the essential interconnection between art and nature which is found in all of the artist’s works. César Manrique selected this extraordinary setting, as he always did, to combine art and nature, and integrate these into the surrounding landscape.

At the entrance a large metallic cactus and door made of forged iron, both worth mentioning as referential and emblematic elements, presage what one is about to see on the inside. The garden is located in the middle of an agricultural environment characterised by its vast cactus plantations dedicated to the cultivation of the cochineal insects.

The origins of the Jardín de Cactus garden date back to the 1970’s, when César Manrique, in the midst of his creativity using the island landscape, focused on the old quarry used to extract volcanic ash from Guatiza.

The artist worked closely with the Island Government of Lanzarote, managing to acquire the land, build a wall around it and restore the traditional windmill which overlooks the premises. The Jardín de Cactus garden, finally opened in 1990 and was to be the last work of César Manrique in Lanzarote.

The centre is five thousand square metres and holds more than seven thousand two hundred samples of more than one thousand one hundred different species. They come from such diverse places as Peru, Mexico, Chile, The United States, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Morocco and the Canary Islands. The Jardín de Cactus botanic collection, by Estanislao González, continues to increase due to the periodic planting of new species.