Santa Brígida
Las Palmas · Canary Islands
DO Gran CanariaVC Islas Canarias18.766inhabitants
1512first mention
1600wine documented
A town in the interior of Gran Canaria, in the old Vega and the Monte Lentiscal. Land and water on the aboriginal settlement of Sataute were shared out after the conquest; around 1524 the hermitage of Santa Brígida was built, becoming a parish in 1585.
First mention: The municipal chronology records in 1512 a new allotment of land and water at “Satautejo” (the aboriginal name of the place) to Pedro de Cabrera, Cristóbal Vivas and others. The first hermitage of Santa Brígida was completed in 1524.
The legend
island exports, 16th century; local tradition since c. 1600 (chronicler)The wine of Monte Lentiscal, since 1600
The vine reached Gran Canaria shortly after the conquest and, when sugar declined in the 16th century, wine became the island's great export to England, Flanders and America. In the midlands of Santa Brígida, around Monte Lentiscal and the Bandama caldera, vineyards were planted and estates were built with wine presses and large cellars. According to the municipality's official chronicler, the local wine tradition has been present since around 1600, and the town's memory attributes the first vines to a Flemish merchant settled on the island. After the War of the Spanish Succession trade with England collapsed, but “vino del Monte” remained the wine of the district's families and was reborn with the DO Monte Lentiscal at the end of the 20th century.
Alive today: Santa Brígida is home to the Regulatory Council of the DO Gran Canaria and the island's Casa-Museo del Vino. It has nine active bodegas, is part of the Gran Canaria Wine Route (in the Acevin network since 2022) and every November holds “Santa Brígida con Vinos”, with bodega visits around Saint Andrew's Day.
Wineries and their wines
Bodega San Juan (Finca El Mocanal, Bandama) · since 1912
Wine towns nearby