Cenobio and Tagoror, Montaña del Gallego

Wonderfully weird and organic

Cenobio de Valerón, “Valeron monastery”, is one of the iconic sights of Gran Canaria. It is not really a monastery, and by looking at it now, it is hard to imagine why would anybody think it was. If you consider that the capsule-style hotels were unknown in the West when is was first named “monastery”, it seems even more puzzling. The caves are small and rather shallow, so that even Diogenes would probably grow claustrophobic and wish to move to New York.

Anyway, for one reason or other, the cave complex of Valeron was thought to be a monastery, till somebody realized it looked very similar to granaries in North Africa. Now it is thought to have been a collective granary, with posted guards and doors closing each storage space, featuring a pintadera, i.e. the seal of the owner. It must have been a fascinating humanhill.

Look at the narrow slots to the right of the center of the pic. I like to think they are to store instruments

Now empty and gaping, it is still fascinating, if not exactly beautiful.

I saw photos of it many times, but always thought you can only get there by car, and that it stands on one of these narrow steep roads that I hate to drive on. I was wrong — although the simplest way to walk there is indeed by the road, which is less than ideal, it has so little traffic that it is not a problem.

You can see the bus stop you can start walking from on the map below. Also, although the road is indeed narrow and curvy, it is quite flat, so driving shouldn’t present a big problem either.

You can see the road (GC-291) that you need to either drive or walk closer to the top of the pic. Yes, there is a drop on one side, but the road itself looks ok.

You have to pay to get to the caves. When I went it costed 3 euros, and it gives you access for a year, if you wish to return.

The place is well signposted if you drive or walk on the road. It is about two and a half km away from the bus stop.

Different colors and textures of rocks in the Valeron ravine

Nice thing about the area is that on the top of the same small mountain, Montaña del Gallego, where you find the Cenobio you also find another strange archaeological site from aboriginal era, called El Tagoror del Gallego. I provide the route, starting at the same bus stop as for Cenobio, below. There are a few paths there, just look for the one which looks safest and least overgrown by opuntia cactus. The idea is to get to the top of the mountain.

The seats, thrones or whatever they could be look towards Gáldar

The use of Tagoror is even less clear. The small cavities in the mountaintop do resemble seats (or even thrones) and their position seems to imply some importance. One of the names is “ayuntamiento de los canarios” — “council of the locals” sort of thing. Normally, the word ayuntamiento is used for city halls nowadays, but aborigines had no cities.

Another version is that is was a place where the justice was dispensed, and there is even a story of some Portuguese conquistador who was tried there and granted a pardon, in exchange for a promise that he will never do any conquisting again. Sounds rather kindergartenish, but they were trusting people, it seems.

Size-wise, they are just right for seats

But, since it is not really clear what it was, I like to think they were worked into the mountain side by the butts of aboriginal grannies would come there in the end of the day, sit down and talk about the world that was about to end and kids who show no proper respect to their elders, and other ubiquitous topics.

Well, ok, maybe something more realistic will be a lookout place for the guards of the granary, providing some shelter from the winds from the north. Guards posted immediately around Cenobio would have had very little warning of anybody coming from the direction of Gáldar, so... the top of the mountain seems like a logical place for a post.

The route to Tagoror from a bus stop and back. If you want to go to Cenobio, just carry on along the GC-291, it is basically under Tagoror. The buses that stop on the motorway are 103 and 105; weekdays there is one every 20 minutes.

Distance: 4.12 km
↑ 182 m
↓ 180 m

Pics of Cenobio and Tagoror on Shutterstock