Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a city in Spain, the administrative center of the province of Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria in the archipelago of the Canary Islands, 210 km from the northwest coast of Africa. One of the two capitals of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands.
The population is 378,517 inhabitants as of 2018, it is the largest city in the Canary Islands. Gran Canaria International Airport is 18 km from the city.
The city was founded on June 24, 1478 by Juan Rejon and the troops of Castile after defeating the Guanches (the indigenous population of the Canary Islands). In 1492 Christopher Columbus made a stop in Las Palmas before his first voyage to America. On the way back to Spain, he also stopped in the city. Today, a museum in the city's Vegeta quarter is named in his honor.
At the end of the XVI century (1595), several attacks were made on the island by English corsairs (John Hawkins, Francis Drake). However, Las Palmas was not taken. The city also resisted the onslaught of the Dutch navigator Pierre van der Doyes (1599). On June 28, 1599, a decisive battle took place between the Dutch and Spanish troops, after which the Dutch were forced to forget once and for all about their claims to the Canary Islands. In honor of this victory, the Cathedral of the Canary Islands (Catedral de Canarias) was built, dedicated to Saint Anna, the patroness of the city.
At the end of the XIX century, Sir Alfred Levi Jones founded the Gran Canaria Coal Company here, which marked the beginning of the prosperity of the city. Ships following the transatlantic route began to stop at the port. New neighborhoods have sprung up around the city. In 1927, Las Palmas became the capital of the eastern province of the Canary Islands, including Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.
