Mirador de Morro Velosa

[Captain Sensible]

It seems to close down regularly for various reasons.

It's a shame it's closed on Sundays (when it is open), and that the cafe is no longer open.

[Cotillo_Tom]

Another place where the cafe appears to have closed is the El Cotillo lighthouse (I'm sure Sam will move this to a new topic).  It appears that many cafes in these places are closing.  I heard that the Cabillo are seeking new people to rent and run these cafes as they don't want to employ staff directly. 

Tom.

[Captain Sensible]

Last year the Cabildo rented out the concessions for the Las Salinas salt Museum, the Tiscamanita Windmill museum and the Antigua Cheese Museum/Windmill.

[Archer]

Still closed, today. If visitors keep finding places of interest closed during peak season, they will not think highly of the island.

Surely it can't take so long to agree the new contracts and fit out a cafe??

[HammerGirl]

Drove past the Mirador at least 4 times in the last 2 weeks trying to show friends the view and the exhibitions, alas, it’s still closed. What a shame. I’m a fan.

[TrickyFox]

Drove past the Mirador at least 4 times in the last 2 weeks trying to show friends the view and the exhibitions, alas, it’s still closed. What a shame. I’m a fan

Whereabouts is it closed? Is it at the bottom of the hill or the complex itself? It is a great shame, it is one of the best views of the island.
Used to love their hot chocolate (and cake before they stopped that? Prices were very good for a 'tourist trap'.

[el caballo hambriento]

A few days ago I drove past it and the bar was across the entrance at the bottom of the hill.

[HammerGirl]

That’s a valid question. I only saw the closed gate at the “bottom” of the hill. Never walked up past the gates to the Mirador. I made an assumption that it was completely closed. Where would people park otherwise... And I agree, the views are awesome out of the glass windows. How’s that for a living room view...

[Captain Sensible]

The bar gate next to the main road was open when we went last Saturday, so it was possible to drive up to the top parking area..

The cafe/exhibition building, however, was still closed.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Diario:

Morro Velosa: closed and without objective

• El Mirador is the only work that César Manrique was going to carry out in Fuerteventura, but he died before its construction. It is still closed and its management is not decided either.
  

Many of the tourists who come to Betancuria usually take one more step and ascend to the Tegú Mountain, whose summit, at 669 meters, is crowned by the Morro Velosa Viewpoint, which was inaugurated in the mid-90s. The view allows you to see the landscape of the north, from La Oliva to El Cotillo and even Tindaya if the clouds rest that day, and the south, from the town of Betancuria to the Risco del Carnicero or the Pico de la Muda and the historic hamlets that have survived the aridity of the place.

The website of the Network of Museums of the Cabildo de Fuerteventura says that it is "the best watchtower to contemplate the Betancuria Massif". "At its feet extends a vast majorero landscape, a landscape marked by the erosive dismantling and desertification to which the Island has been subjected," he adds. The dismantling does not say it by the viewpoint itself, which closed its doors provisionally more than three years ago and has not reopened.
Sources of the Cabildo indicate that it remains closed for security reasons, because tiles are falling off. "Its next opening requires a process of remodeling and improvement in which we are already working from Museums of Fuerteventura for its opening in the shortest possible time," they point out. Meanwhile, visitors have been able to access the outdoor area during the weekends, from seven in the morning to seven in the afternoon.
The viewpoint has been closed on other occasions and the gate that prevents the passage of vehicles to the top was also closed, although it could be climbed on foot. On this occasion, you leave the road traffic up, but you can not visit the interior.
The content of the building has been changing. When it opened it was a restaurant, thanks to a concession that was granted to a restaurateur from Gran Tarajal. Later, when Fuerteventura was named a Biosphere Reserve, it became a kind of interpretation center of the Betancuria Rural Park.
Thus, panels on the value of landscapes, climate, flora and fauna of the island were placed inside, thanks to an agreement signed in 2011 between the Cabildo and the Ministry of the Environment, to materialize the actions included in the work plan of the Biosphere Reserve in order to adapt the Network of Museums and promote this new condition.
It was also proposed as one of the star viewpoints that were to be part of the Starlight Reserve project. On the other hand, the restaurant became a cafeteria.
Cesar Manrique

In the description made by the portal of the Network of Museums on the viewpoint it is pointed out that it is "the footprint", of the "contribution" that César Manrique made "to Fuerteventura". And on the promotional page of the Regional Ministry of Tourism it is highlighted that it is "the work of the famous and prolific Canarian artist César Manrique". But the matter is not so simple.

"The project was delivered to the Cabildo of Fuerteventura a day or two before César died," says architect Blanca Cabrera, who was in charge of carrying it out. The Cabildo, then chaired by José Juan Herrera, had commissioned a viewpoint from the lanzarote artist, who until then had not made any public intervention in Fuerteventura, but had designed viewpoints for La Gomera and El Hierro.

Caesar chose the place among several options and set to work. "We made many trips to the area and finished the design and, although the initial project was on one floor, the Cabildo insisted on making two. Only the upper floor was planned and the lower floor was made to be an assembly hall or something, and we did it," recalls Cabrera, director of the Diseño Lanzarote studio. "César did the design and I did the technical part, but he really only lacked the title to be an architect," he says.

The César Manrique Foundation does not recognize the viewpoint as the work of the artist

But César died suddenly, in September 1992, and the execution of the project was carried out by the architect. The César Manrique Foundation does not recognize the Mirador de Morro Velosa as one of the artist's works because in the process of construction and finishing "it is where the artist intervened the most and where he projected his creative and aesthetic stamp most visible to the viewer".
It is a case similar to that of the Islet of Fermina, in Arrecife, a work projected by the artist, but unfinished. The Government of the Canary Islands decided to finish it based on Manrique's approach but it is not recognized as his work, such as the Jameos del Agua or the Mirador del Río, since César intervened even in the smallest details during its construction.
"The Mirador de Morro Velosa is not recognized by the Foundation as an integral work of César Manrique, since the artist did not participate in the execution. The authorship of the original idea is recognized, as well as their collaboration in the drafting of the project, "they point out from the César Manrique Foundation.

The original idea was a single plant and surrounded by trees by visual impact

Cabrera points out that, in fact, reforms or interventions have been carried out afterwards in which she has not participated either, such as a screen. "On the outside it seems that it has not been touched, but inside the interior distribution has been varied, such as the bathrooms, which we did not like at all, or the screen."



He also remembers that César intended to surround the viewpoint with trees to avoid the visual impact of the building, but it was not done. And, finally, the artist came to design a logo, in the style of the Devil of Timanfaya or the jameíto, as he did in the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers of Lanzarote. The design was of a goat that had to be executed in corten steel, but it was never done either.
The architect points out that César recommended to the Cabildo majorero to manage the center directly. Again, after the last closure, the model remains unclear.

link to original article for pics