Museo y Parque Arqueológico Cueva Pintada de Gáldar

The discovery of the Painted Cave

Although agricultural work carried out in 1862 to cultivate prickly pears to harvest cochineal led to the fortuitous discovery of the Painted Cave, it was not until 1873 that the cave was officially discovered.

It was in 1873 that José Ramos Orihuela got into the chamber through a narrow gap in the roof.

Once in there, he saw a collection of geometric paintings on the walls which led to the naming of the cave as the Painted Cave. This name was successfully adopted and remains the name today. From the moment of its discovery, the painted cave became a place of visit for all scholars and researchers interested in the island’s pre-Hispanic history.

In 1876 Chil y Naranjo included a brief mention of this event in their “Estudios”, research.

In 1884 Diego Ripoche contributed great detail about the discovery, writing in his works that, “Some corpses, pots and other objects were found in the cave but enthusiasts have taken them.";

Also in 1884, Olivia Stone visited the site and insisted that the Council take over the site in order to clean it and allow access to the public.

In 1887 the French anthropologist René Verneau visited the cave and wrote a detailed description of the singularity and the careful execution of each of the multi-coloured panels.

At the end of the 19th Century certain members of society stood up and stressed the extraordinary relevance of this discovery and the need to conserve it. The feature writer Batlluri y Lorenzo launched a desperate plea for the protection of the Painted Cave under the title “My Last Attempt” in his column in the magazine “El Museo Canario”.

Throughout the 20th Century the institutional neglect of the cave was still under scrutiny, but it’s from 1967 onwards when the press campaign in favour of the restoration of the cave began, due to historians such as Celso Martín de Guzmán y Elías Serra Ráfols.

Faced with the progressive deterioration of the paintings, the General Commission of Archeological Excavations undertook works to protect the paintings and to isolate humidity which was affecting the paintings in 1970. They also began work to clean up and clear out the cave which then led to the discovery of a group of caves surrounding the painted cave which formed a unique group.

The lack of information available about the pre-Hispanic settlements, together with the lack of forethought and no reaction towards the discovered that were being made at the time of these works, provoked the destruction of a very important part of this group, of which only a few scarce materials were collected due to the kindness of some of the locals who had rescued them from the rubble.

This intervention together with the building of an architectural enclosure which aimed to protect the cave and ultimately open it to the public. In 1972 it was declared a Historical-Artistic Monument.

The first systematic investigative work on the group of caves was carried out by Antonio Beltrán and José Miguel Alzola, published in 1974. This study includes the first colour photos and the most accurate drawings done to date, which without a doubt contributed to the diffusion/broadcasting of the archaeological site between the specialists.

The first signs that the paintings were deteriorating were notices just eight years after the caves had opened to the public in 1972. The irrigation of the fields around the caves and the inadequate architectural enclosure and the lack of planning of visits led to an excessive humidity and an increase in the temperature inside the chamber.

In spite of certain changes that improved the ventilation of the cave, the biggest problem was still the continuous irrigation filtrations and the aggression of the fertiliser chemicals dissolved in the water. It was decided therefore to take over the neighbouring fields in order to get rid of the plantations. These circumstances together meant that the decision had to be made to close the cave to the public in October 1982.