![[-]](https://fuerteventura.click/images/collapse.png "[-]")
01-07-2023, 08:21 PM
Radio Sintonia:
Fuerteventura, an island divided by two kingdoms.
The archaeological site, La Pared de Jandía, is located on the isthmus that connects the Jandía Peninsula with the rest of the island, in the municipality of Pájara. It consists of a stone wall that, according to documentary references, crossed the island from north to south, from the windward coast to the leeward coast along the Isthmus of Jandía, in a length of 6 km, and about 40 structures attached to it or in its vicinity.
Historical references of wall
The first historical references about this site are collected from the fifteenth century, in the French chronicle of the conquest, Le Canarien, where they allude to the existence of it;
The island of Erbania, which is said to be Fuerteventura, contains 24 French leagues long and 7 wide, and at a certain point is only one league. There is a large and wide wall that takes the whole country from one sea to the other (Le Canarien. 1980:65).
But there is such a point, in that it contains no more than a league from sea to sea. That region is sandy, and there is a great stone wall that crosses the whole country, from one bank to another (Le Canarien. 1980: 167).
More references
In the seventeenth century the archaeological site is represented in the cartography of Yñigo de Brizuela (Juan Tous Meliá. Study and Editing. 2000:71), crossing the Isthmus of Jandía. Later, in the cartography of Francisco Coello, XIX century (Pascual Madoz. Maps and plans of Francisco Coello. 1986) appears again with the toponym of La Pared and drawn on the ground from one side of the island to the other. Also in the cartography of Marcial Velázquez of 1849 (Map of Fuerteventura. Canary Islands. Maps of the Geographic Center of the Army), points to the site with the name of the Wall and represents it crossing the island by the Isthmus of Jandía.
Toponym of La Pared
The toponym of Bahía de La Pared also appears in the eighteenth century on the maps of José Varela y Ulloa (Spherical chart of the coast of Africa from Cape Spartel to Cape Bojador and Canary Islands. 1787) and Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel (Atlas marítimo de España, year 1789. Spherical chart of a part of the Atlantic Ocean. Year 1788).
The act nº 477 of the Agreements of the Cabildo (R. Roldán Verdejo / Delgado González, C. 1967: 247) indicates in the eighteenth century the existence of La Pared: to those who are taking orchillas in the Dehesa de Jandía, nor of those who have the lessor of said orchillas of the wall.
Two Kingdoms
The traveler René Verneau in the eighteenth century (1981: 152), also collects for this site, the following: a short distance from Chilegua ends the great island or land of Majorata. As soon as you turn around Cardon Mountain, you see an isthmus six miles long by two and a half miles wide.
It is the isthmus of La Pared, so called because it is closed, to the north, by an immense wall, which formerly divided the kingdoms of Majorata and Jandía.
The two kings rarely lived in good harmony and this wall protected each other from the aggressions of the enemy. Even today there is the same enmity between the majoreros and the shepherds of the peninsula of Jandía. Virtually, the wall persists, and since some cattle cross it, they are immediately captured by the neighbor.
One of the most important majorero deposits
La Pared is one of the most important archaeological sites of the pre-European stage of Fuerteventura and also the largest, in terms of its extension, in the territory and number of structures that make it up.
Due to the complexity of the archaeological site of La Pared, for its description the structure itself of the wall has been separated from the structures integrated into it.
The structure of La Pared de Jandía.
La Pared is located to the NW of the Peninsula of Jandía almost on the coastline, about 50 meters above sea level next to the coast of Laja Blanca, at the foot of a small mountain about 90 meters high, preserved in short stretches that end in Montaña de Pasa Si Puedes, where it has two ramifications, one that coincides with the aforementioned Laja Blanca and another that starts from the point of the coast located between Baja del Erizo and Punta de Guadalupe. Both branches join near the foot of Pasa Si Puedes Mountain. After this section La Pared is lost, affected by the road that crosses the Isthmus and especially by the infrastructure works of the urbanization called La Pared. It appears again to the south of the urbanization, next to a water tank located next to the road, and continues almost straight to the south sea or leeward, passing through the degollada de Pedro Ponce and running on the slope of the Barranco de los Cuchillos, which flows into the coast of Matas Blancas.
Distance from the wall
The Wall runs parallel to the fence of Gustav Winter Klingele, disappearing where the Barranco de los Cuchillos forks with the Barranco Vachuelo de los Hernández, to appear in the vicinity of a farm dedicated, in the past, to the plantation of tomato trees. From there to the Casas de Matas Blancas are detected, almost in a straight line, the remains of the structure of La Pared, which are altered by mechanical shovel, among other causes.
The above mentioned comes to confirm the data of the chronicle of the conquest Le Canarien; that La Pared closed the Isthmus from coast to coast. Likewise, the data collected by ancient historians and researchers closest to our era such as Sebastián Jiménez Sánchez (in 1946), Elías Serra Rafols (in 1959-60), and the various studies carried out throughout history; Archaeological prospections, oral historiography, etc., indicate that La Pared, located on the Isthmus of Jandía, extended from sea to sea, from windward to leeward.
The footprint of man and the deterioration of history
The current height of the structure rarely exceeds 80 cm in the northern part, while the width varies reaching in certain sections between 1 and 1.50 meters. The continuous aggressions that he was and is enduring has caused almost the disappearance of the stretch that reached the coastal area of Matas Blancas. The most aggressive alterations of this section, was the use of the stones of the structure of La Pared for urban constructions, the realization of the road that leads to Morro Jable, which destroyed it in several sectors and the opening of a dirt track that runs parallel to La Pared. This track is currently the most direct aggression on this section.
The Winter Family and the Wall
Another factor to highlight along the route of La Pared, is the presence of the wire fence of the German Gustav Winter Klingele. This metal fence was placed practically attached to La Pared and of which there are still large sections in a dilapidated state. Precisely in the area of Matas Blancas was the door and house of the guard of the large estate, which meant the almost disappearance of the structure at this point, consummating even more with the asphalting of the road and the construction of the fish farm.
Winter's motives for placing a fence were several, although all seem to be related to cattle; It was precisely because of livestock when in the year 62 the Winter family fenced with a barbed wire fence that placed from coast to coast on the isthmus of the wall, made the delimiting border between the peninsula of Jandía and the rest of Fuerteventura. "Our medianeros," says Doña Isabel Winter, "protested because there was a lack of cattle because when the medianeros went to Jandía to graze, since there was no control, they left with more heads of cattle than those who actually entered."
Also to safeguard from contacts with other breeds their cattle "Karakul" of those who entered without any control. "The fences were placed with the sole intention of protecting the property of the cattle, not only ours but also of the ranchers who also worked in the area" (La Provincia. 11: 1991).
Source: Government of the Canary Islands
Fuerteventura, an island divided by two kingdoms.
The archaeological site, La Pared de Jandía, is located on the isthmus that connects the Jandía Peninsula with the rest of the island, in the municipality of Pájara. It consists of a stone wall that, according to documentary references, crossed the island from north to south, from the windward coast to the leeward coast along the Isthmus of Jandía, in a length of 6 km, and about 40 structures attached to it or in its vicinity.
Historical references of wall
The first historical references about this site are collected from the fifteenth century, in the French chronicle of the conquest, Le Canarien, where they allude to the existence of it;
The island of Erbania, which is said to be Fuerteventura, contains 24 French leagues long and 7 wide, and at a certain point is only one league. There is a large and wide wall that takes the whole country from one sea to the other (Le Canarien. 1980:65).
But there is such a point, in that it contains no more than a league from sea to sea. That region is sandy, and there is a great stone wall that crosses the whole country, from one bank to another (Le Canarien. 1980: 167).
More references
In the seventeenth century the archaeological site is represented in the cartography of Yñigo de Brizuela (Juan Tous Meliá. Study and Editing. 2000:71), crossing the Isthmus of Jandía. Later, in the cartography of Francisco Coello, XIX century (Pascual Madoz. Maps and plans of Francisco Coello. 1986) appears again with the toponym of La Pared and drawn on the ground from one side of the island to the other. Also in the cartography of Marcial Velázquez of 1849 (Map of Fuerteventura. Canary Islands. Maps of the Geographic Center of the Army), points to the site with the name of the Wall and represents it crossing the island by the Isthmus of Jandía.
Toponym of La Pared
The toponym of Bahía de La Pared also appears in the eighteenth century on the maps of José Varela y Ulloa (Spherical chart of the coast of Africa from Cape Spartel to Cape Bojador and Canary Islands. 1787) and Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel (Atlas marítimo de España, year 1789. Spherical chart of a part of the Atlantic Ocean. Year 1788).
The act nº 477 of the Agreements of the Cabildo (R. Roldán Verdejo / Delgado González, C. 1967: 247) indicates in the eighteenth century the existence of La Pared: to those who are taking orchillas in the Dehesa de Jandía, nor of those who have the lessor of said orchillas of the wall.
Two Kingdoms
The traveler René Verneau in the eighteenth century (1981: 152), also collects for this site, the following: a short distance from Chilegua ends the great island or land of Majorata. As soon as you turn around Cardon Mountain, you see an isthmus six miles long by two and a half miles wide.
It is the isthmus of La Pared, so called because it is closed, to the north, by an immense wall, which formerly divided the kingdoms of Majorata and Jandía.
The two kings rarely lived in good harmony and this wall protected each other from the aggressions of the enemy. Even today there is the same enmity between the majoreros and the shepherds of the peninsula of Jandía. Virtually, the wall persists, and since some cattle cross it, they are immediately captured by the neighbor.
One of the most important majorero deposits
La Pared is one of the most important archaeological sites of the pre-European stage of Fuerteventura and also the largest, in terms of its extension, in the territory and number of structures that make it up.
Due to the complexity of the archaeological site of La Pared, for its description the structure itself of the wall has been separated from the structures integrated into it.
The structure of La Pared de Jandía.
La Pared is located to the NW of the Peninsula of Jandía almost on the coastline, about 50 meters above sea level next to the coast of Laja Blanca, at the foot of a small mountain about 90 meters high, preserved in short stretches that end in Montaña de Pasa Si Puedes, where it has two ramifications, one that coincides with the aforementioned Laja Blanca and another that starts from the point of the coast located between Baja del Erizo and Punta de Guadalupe. Both branches join near the foot of Pasa Si Puedes Mountain. After this section La Pared is lost, affected by the road that crosses the Isthmus and especially by the infrastructure works of the urbanization called La Pared. It appears again to the south of the urbanization, next to a water tank located next to the road, and continues almost straight to the south sea or leeward, passing through the degollada de Pedro Ponce and running on the slope of the Barranco de los Cuchillos, which flows into the coast of Matas Blancas.
Distance from the wall
The Wall runs parallel to the fence of Gustav Winter Klingele, disappearing where the Barranco de los Cuchillos forks with the Barranco Vachuelo de los Hernández, to appear in the vicinity of a farm dedicated, in the past, to the plantation of tomato trees. From there to the Casas de Matas Blancas are detected, almost in a straight line, the remains of the structure of La Pared, which are altered by mechanical shovel, among other causes.
The above mentioned comes to confirm the data of the chronicle of the conquest Le Canarien; that La Pared closed the Isthmus from coast to coast. Likewise, the data collected by ancient historians and researchers closest to our era such as Sebastián Jiménez Sánchez (in 1946), Elías Serra Rafols (in 1959-60), and the various studies carried out throughout history; Archaeological prospections, oral historiography, etc., indicate that La Pared, located on the Isthmus of Jandía, extended from sea to sea, from windward to leeward.
The footprint of man and the deterioration of history
The current height of the structure rarely exceeds 80 cm in the northern part, while the width varies reaching in certain sections between 1 and 1.50 meters. The continuous aggressions that he was and is enduring has caused almost the disappearance of the stretch that reached the coastal area of Matas Blancas. The most aggressive alterations of this section, was the use of the stones of the structure of La Pared for urban constructions, the realization of the road that leads to Morro Jable, which destroyed it in several sectors and the opening of a dirt track that runs parallel to La Pared. This track is currently the most direct aggression on this section.
The Winter Family and the Wall
Another factor to highlight along the route of La Pared, is the presence of the wire fence of the German Gustav Winter Klingele. This metal fence was placed practically attached to La Pared and of which there are still large sections in a dilapidated state. Precisely in the area of Matas Blancas was the door and house of the guard of the large estate, which meant the almost disappearance of the structure at this point, consummating even more with the asphalting of the road and the construction of the fish farm.
Winter's motives for placing a fence were several, although all seem to be related to cattle; It was precisely because of livestock when in the year 62 the Winter family fenced with a barbed wire fence that placed from coast to coast on the isthmus of the wall, made the delimiting border between the peninsula of Jandía and the rest of Fuerteventura. "Our medianeros," says Doña Isabel Winter, "protested because there was a lack of cattle because when the medianeros went to Jandía to graze, since there was no control, they left with more heads of cattle than those who actually entered."
Also to safeguard from contacts with other breeds their cattle "Karakul" of those who entered without any control. "The fences were placed with the sole intention of protecting the property of the cattle, not only ours but also of the ranchers who also worked in the area" (La Provincia. 11: 1991).
Source: Government of the Canary Islands