CASA DE LOS CORONELES

Both for its history and its imposing size, it is one of the emblematic monuments of the Canary Islands. Built in 1650 by descendants of Jean de Béthencourt, the "house of the colonels" was the residence of the military governors of the island at the time when La Oliva was the administrative capital of the island of Fuerteventura. This long rectangular building is recognizable by its four small crenellated towers, its large portal and its carved wooden balconies. At the foot of the dry hills south of the village, it looks like a Mexican hacienda. Above the main door, the coat of arms of the Cabrere Béthencourt family can be seen, depicting a tree, a crown and a goat. Popular legend describes this building as the house with 365 windows, an aberration that could be explained by an expression of the local peasantry of the time, who were very poor at the time and who ironically commented on this indecent luxury by saying that the house had "as many windows as there were days in the year". The officers so abused their power to extort money from the peasants that Madrid had to dissolve this governance in 1834 in the face of multiple bloody rebellions in the surrounding countryside. The residence houses temporary art exhibitions, as well as a collection of objects relating to the history of the island. Next to this main building with yellow walls, a more rustic and ruined annex can be seen, and low cut stone walls delimit the enclosure where the governors' goats were raised.