La Palma, Canary Islands Travel Guide
Travel to La Palma, Canary Islands - Palm Island
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La Palma is a Spanish volcanic ocean island, located in the Atlantic Ocean, 200 kilometres west of the coast of Morocco. This island is widely regarded as being the most beautiful and unspoilt of the five main holiday islands. It covers an area of 706 square kilometres making it the fifth largest of the seven main Canary Islands, with Santa Cruz de la Palma as its capital city.
At the time of European colonization, the Canary Islands were inhabited by native Canarians, referred to collectively as Guanches, although the natives of La Palma are more correctly known as Auaritas. The origin of these natives is unclear but they are believed to share common ancestry with the Berbers of North Africa.
The Guanches had a Neolithic culture divided into several clans led by chiefs. Their name for La Palma was Benahoare. The main remnants of this culture are their cave dwellings, enigmatic petroglyphs, and paved stone paths through the mountains. After the Spanish occupation of La Palma, the native Canarians vanished by either being killed, sold into slavery, or by assimilating into the Spanish population.
It is believed that the Canary Islands were known to the Phoenicians and Greeks, but the earliest written evidence was done by the Roman. The Genoese navigator Lancelotto Malocello reached the archipelago in 1312 and remained for two decades until expelled by a native uprising. In 1404, the Spaniards began the conquest of the islands. Though the first landing on La Palma was in 1405, it took until 1493 and several bloody battles until the last resistance of the natives was broken. The conqueror of La Palma was Alonso Fernández de Lugo, who defeated Tanausu, the last king on the island. He ruled the area known as Acero.
For the next two centuries, settlements on La Palma became rich as the island served as a trading post on the way to the New World. La Palma received immigrants from Castile, Portugal, Majorca, Flanders, and Catalonia.
Places to Visit in La Palma, Canary Islands
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