Vega de San Mateo

Vega de San Mateo, or simply San Mateo, is a Spanish town and municipality belonging to the island of Gran Canaria, in the province of Las Palmas, autonomous community from the Canary Islands.

San Mateo is one of the landlocked municipalities on the island of Gran Canaria, nestled in the central-eastern midlands of the island.

Toponymy

After the capture of the island, the place occupied by the modern municipal term was known as Vega de Arriba, becoming known as San Mateo or Vega de San Mateo from the construction of the primitive hermitage dedicated to the apostle at the end of from the 17th century.

Finally, by Royal Decree of June 27, 1916, the municipal term was officially renamed Vega de San Mateo, in order to differentiate it from other Spanish municipalities of the same name.

Traditionally it has been assumed that the aboriginal name of this area was Tinamar, based on data provided by Pascual Madoz in his Geographical-statistical-historical dictionary of Spain and its possessions of Overseas. However, modern investigations question this name and attribute it to a mistake by Madoz when making his work. However, the Tinamar voice has taken root in the local population.

Identity elements

Symbols

Shield and flag of Vega de San Mateo.

Shield

The municipal coat of arms of Vega de San Mateo is divided vertically and semi-cut. The left half presents a silver cherub on a sable background, surrounded by an azure border in which there are 16 swords crossed two by two, from the shield of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (which was formerly used for the entire island), since this honor was granted to that city by Queen Juana I la Loca. The right half is divided, in turn, into two horizontal quarters. In the one above a castle with crenellations in gold on sinople. In the lower quarter, the Saucillo Cross flanked by four arrows in gules. On the coat of arms, a marquesal crown and below it, a blank badge with the legend "Tinamar", which recalls the original name of San Mateo.

Flag

The flag used by the municipality is the one represented by the orange and blue colors on two rectangular triangles arranged diagonally, with the orange one facing the pole and the blue one facing the swing. It has a proportion of 2 x 3, that is to say, one and a half times as long as it is wide, and it does not bear a coat of arms. The design of this flag has an unofficial character, since the same colors that the Lucha Canaria team of the municipality had worn in their clothing since the 1970s were adopted.

Physical geography

Plano de la Vega de San Mateo (1896).

Location

It is located on a wide and fertile agricultural plain in the medium-high section of the Guiniguada ravine, in the midlands of the center-north of the island of Gran Canaria, 22 kilometers southwest of the island capital.

The municipal term limits with the following municipalities: to the north with Teror and Santa Brígida, to the east with Valsequillo de Gran Canaria, to the south with San Bartolomé de Tirajana and Tejeda, and to the west with Valleseco. The municipal perimeter is 28.46 km long.

Orography

From Cruz de Tejeda, the landscape descends towards the Las Lagunetas hollow, which is crossed by the La Mina ravine. To the north of the municipality are its most rugged areas, such as the hamlet of Las Lagunetas and, above it, Aríñez and its dam. On the other side, to the south, the payment of Cueva Grande. The rest of the municipal surface presents a flatter relief undermined by ravines and small valleys whose orography is not very pronounced. The greenery of the valleys and slopes of La Vega is almost permanent, and its lands are exploited with various crops and fruit trees. The municipality rises from 800 meters high, within the midlands, to the summit area of the Massif Central, where the highest elevations on the island occur, Pico de las Nieves (1949.96 m), Los Pechos (1951 m) and Roque Redondo (1921 m).

It runs through the Castillejos and Mireles ravines that come to converge in the La Mina ravine, which crosses the northeast of the island to the coast, receiving the name Guiniguada ravine downstream.

Hydrography

Vega de San Mateo Precipitaciones 1997-2010.

Climate

Nevada in Alto del Pozo (2002).

Vega de San Mateo is the highest municipality on the island of Gran Canaria, since the highest altitudes are reached within its territory, the highest being Pico de las Nieves at 1949.96 meters above sea level. In addition, its orientation to the north and its distribution between the elevations of 800 and 1,950 meters, within what is known as the zone of midlands, favors a very humid environment with great thermal contrasts. This causes hot summers and cold winters with possible night frosts and abundant precipitation that, on some occasions, has come in the form of hail and/or snow. Said precipitations oscillate between the 1000 mm of maximum and the 600 mm of annual average to which it would be necessary to add some 300 mm that are obtained indirectly by condensation of the sea of clouds.

The northward orientation in the midlands favors the formation of a sea of clouds, orographic convection clouds that form the trade winds, humid and fresh from the Atlantic, when they hit the relief and condense the air. Accompanying this phenomenon, usually at sunset the so-called Foehn effect usually occurs with the clouds rising up the slope and descending the opposite slope. Thus, the sea of clouds stagnates between 800 and 1,500 meters high, cooling the climate, reaching average temperatures of no less than 22 °C in summer and around 13 °C.

Nature

Flora and fauna

The pine forests begin to appear from a thousand meters as we approach the summit, where the Pico de las Nieves, a privileged vantage point of the sea of clouds that forms in the middle, and maximum height of the municipality.

History

The San Mateo valley is a lovely place. The low water of the mountains in hilillos through the various valleys that surround it, forming waterfalls and streams and reeds of exquisite beauty. I could lose the fairy country.

Olivia Stone, London, 1887

San Mateo is located in the midlands of the island, in a fertile valley with abundant rainfall. So much so that it had almost permanent water currents in each of its ravines, called rivers after the conquest.

In an area where ownership of water is more important than ownership of land itself, the springs of La Vega have been the subject of centuries-old lawsuits over their possession and enjoyment. This struggle broke out from the xiv century, when a series of aguatenientes appeared who claimed before the Crown of Castile all kinds of of successes or services in order to obtain privileges over springs and ravine beds, undoubtedly because, in those times, water flowed through them with much greater abundance than today. For all these reasons, from 1797 a mayor of waters began to be appointed, who acted as a mediator in these conflicts to curb the ambition of these aguatenientes, who tried to monopolize the water to stagnate it and be able to sell it. at exorbitant prices in periods of drought.

View of San Mateo at the end of the century xix.

The town's devotion to its patron saint, San Mateo, dates back to 1736, with the arrival of settlers who settled in the area. By then there was already news of the existence of a hermitage built by the locals at the end of the xvii century, which was dedicated to San Mateo Apóstol, closely related to agricultural tasks, the main activity of La Vega. Masses and novenas were offered to him to ask for it to rain or to remove the locust plagues from the crops.

On October 25, 1800, the hermitage of San Mateo would become a parish by decree of Bishop Verdugo. The reasons put forward at the time were that the hermitage already served a large enough number of faithful to have its own parish without having to depend on that of Santa Brígida, in addition to the distance between the two payments and the state of the roads, made it difficult for the parishioners of San Mateo to go to the Satauteña parish to comply with the precept. Today, the church has a bell donated by emigrants from the town residing in Cuba, who, in addition to buying and shipping the bell to Gran Canaria, also sent enough money to build the bell tower that houses it.

As in so many other municipalities on the island, achieving the independence of the parish meant taking the first step towards achieving municipal autonomy. For this reason, once religious segregation was achieved, the residents of San Mateo demanded total independence from neighboring Santa Brígida. Thus, on December 22, 1800, they began the corresponding file before the Royal Court, in which the appointment of public jobs was requested (royal mayor, deputies, representative and faithful of facts). The audience, after consulting the reports of the Mayor of the island, the mayor of La Vega and the prosecutor, agreed on December 16, 1801 to separate the payment of San Mateo from the jurisdiction of Santa Brígida, thus granting it administrative independence.

The urban center of Vega de San Mateo was one of the most important agricultural centers in Gran Canaria. Until the middle of the xx century, it still had several artisan workshops (blacksmiths, tinsmiths, shoe shops, gofio mills, etc.) and was a commercial hub between the lower zone and the small farmhouses.

On May 28, 1980, a Hercules 380 from the Zaragoza Air Base crashed in the area known as La Hoya del Gamonal. All 11 occupants died in the accident. The morning fog and a possible technical failure were the cause of such a horrible accident.

Demographics

As of January 1, 2017, the municipality had 7,562 inhabitants and a population density of 199.58 inhabitants/km².

Graphic of demographic evolution of Vega de San Mateo between 1900 and 2021

Official regular residents according to ISTAC population censuses.

Politics

City Hall

The municipality of Vega de San Mateo has been governed since the first democratic elections by different independent local political forces. Except in 1995, the municipal government has been made up of a single group of independents. That year, the vote was distributed among several of these groups and forced the political forces to reach a government pact. As a result of this pact, Miguel Hidalgo Sánchez of the political group Alternativa por San Mateo (ASM) was proclaimed mayor, who governed the municipality until in March 2006 when he resigned for private reasons and handed over the baton to Gregorio González Vega, who took over. mayor's office until 2011.

On May 22, 2011, Antonio Jesús Ortega Rodríguez, from the San Mateo Neighborhood Assembly (AVESAN) political party, was elected mayor of the municipality, with the vote of 2,130 people, his party obtaining an absolute majority with 7 councilors. Avesan then made history, becoming the first Spanish political party that, starting from scratch (it had been created only three months before the elections) achieved an absolute majority to govern.

Territorial organization

Vega de San Mateo is integrated into the Commonwealth of Non-Coastal Mountain Municipalities of the Canary Islands, Commonwealth of Municipalities of Gran Canaria for the Promotion of Renewable Energies, Research and Development (R&D) and in the Commonwealth of Municipalities of the Medianías of Gran Canaria; all of them with their headquarters fixed in the municipality. It is also a member of the Canarian Federation of Municipalities.

Towns and neighborhoods

San Mateo helmet

It is the payment that brings together more than half of the population of municipality (3395 census inhabitants) as the municipal capital and where essential services are concentrated. In turn it is divided administratively in the neighborhoods of Cantillo, El Chorrillo, Cuatro Caminos, Hoya Viciosa, El Retiro and La Veguetilla.

The lettuce

Located 1050 msnm and 2.1 km from San Mateo helmet, it is the most inhabited population centre outside the municipal capital, with 744 inhabitants. It is a small urban centre in a rustic area.

Cultivations in bankruptcies in Las Lagunetas (year 1900).

The Lagunetas

It is a mountain hamlet located at 1100 meters of altitude, urban soil in its main nucleus and other rural settlement, in whose high part its 587 inhabitants have known to take advantage of the abrupt terrain to cultivate there where by the slope of the ravine was not possible. Its crops buried in benches are a sample of the ingenuity and the knowledge of making peasants. In the payment of Las Lagunetas they have always received their immigrant neighbors with a festive atmosphere. There they celebrate the feast of the Indians, whose origin seems to date back to 1909. The neighborhood is 5.5 kilometres from the urban centre.

Utiaca

In part urban land and partly rural settlement, Utiaca is a picturesque village located in the north of the municipality 4 kilometres from the hull and 850 metres altitude, populated by 573 people. Its mill and lavenders are pieces of high ethnographic value. Over time, their peasants have been able to gradually convert the hardness of the land into the pantry of our markets.

Lomo Carbonero

This population is located on the general road to Teror, once past the Utiaca neighborhood.

The Solana

Ariñez

Located about 1300 meters above sea level. This is the highest neighborhood in the entire municipality. It is only 6.5 kilometres from the hull and has approximately 250 people. Its main characteristic is its great landscape value.

Cross of the Herrero

Small population settlement, located in the vicinity of the well-known Presa de Aríñez, in its north-eastern part, while in the south-west lies the neighborhood of La Yedra. Crossing roads between Las Lagunetas, La Yedra and Utiaca and even Teror, is a point transited by hikers and visitors. The population has been reduced over time but has good examples of traditional Canarian architecture as well as active farmlands.

The Yedra

It is a neighborhood located on one of the slopes of the Barranco de La Mina, on horseback between Las Lagunetas in the upper and Utiaca area at the bottom. It has a variety of cave houses (excavated or natural) and the spread of its houses. The farmlands are presented staggered as a result of the site's spelling. His hermitage is a cave and is dedicated to San Antonio de Padua.

Big cave

The Bodeguilla

The Gallego

Camaretas

Cross of Tejeda

In this hamlet of 52 inhabitants stands the Parador de Cruz de Tejeda and the stone cross that gives name to the payment, so it is very visited by tourists and people of the island. Dista 8 kilometers from the hull and is at an altitude of 1400 meters.

Galaz

The name of this rural settlement usually appears in statistics as Galas. It is a hamlet in which 33 people live, which separates one kilometre from Cruz de Tejeda, placing itself in its same altitude. It is the neighborhood that is most distant from the hull, 9 kilometers from the center.

Gamonal Day

Saucillo Cross

Risco Prieto

It is a semi-detached house of 6.4 km and at an altitude of 1320 m.

Urbanism

The change in the economic model that has been experienced in Vega de San Mateo in recent decades has led to the decline of traditional agriculture in favor of other economic activities that take place outside the municipality. Such activities, mainly linked to tourism and the service sector, involve the occupation of the southeastern coastal strip of the island and the population abandonment of the central and northern areas with special incidence in the municipalities of the midlands. Thus, in San Mateo there is a decrease in the actual population and, simultaneously, a significant increase in residential construction, giving rise to the phenomenon of the second residence that raises the building level without modifying the population.

Dispersion is the most widespread and relevant characteristic of the form of settlement in the municipal area, with the few exceptions of some areas of the urban area and the small nuclei of Las Lagunetas and San Francisco. Even in historic centers it is difficult to find concentrations of construction that exceed the mere aggregation of houses along a road.

One of the most serious problems in the territory of San Mateo is the progressive occupation of rural land by buildings and, especially, potentially agricultural land. This occupation occurs through extensions, outside the law, of existing rural buildings or with completely illegal new construction. The absence of municipal planning, the scarce urban culture and the lack of urban discipline seem to be at the base of this phenomenon.

The Basic Adaptation document of the General Management Plan of the Vega de San Mateo of the year 2005 classifies as urban land those of the center of San Mateo, La Lechuza, Las Lagunetas, La Solana de Utiaca and Utiaca and the rest as land rustic rural settlement and rustic non-buildable land.

Infrastructures

Media

Radioelectric stations in Pico de la Gorra (1,930 msnm), next to Pozo de las Nieves.

They have their studios from the municipality and broadcast Radio Tinamar and Radio San Mateo, which do so on modulated frequency and can also be heard in neighboring municipalities. There is also a digital newspaper with a strong local character, www.noticiasdesanmateo.com.

On the Mesas de Galaz mountain, near Cruz de Tejeda, is the broadcasting center of Radio Nacional de España for the medium wave band with regional coverage (28°0'51"N 15° 35'24'W). In Pozo de Las Nieves (27°57'35"N 15°33'34"W) there is a television repeater that covers the entire island and serves as a link with the island of Tenerife and Madrid and nearby, in Roque Redondo, the Telefónica radio link.

Means of transportation

The absence of railway infrastructure in the Canary Islands, due to the markedness of its orography, has made possible the great development of roads as a formula for internal communication in the islands. These infrastructures allow the inhabitants of San Mateo and its visitors to reach the ports and airport, located in neighboring municipalities, in just under an hour. On these roads, runs a well-structured network of public transport by bus whose expeditions reach the smallest payments of the municipality. There is also a permanent helideck for emergencies, located in the vicinity of Pico de las Nieves.

Roads

Within the municipal term there are no motorways or dual carriageways, so communication between its different payments is made through primary and secondary roads and some agricultural tracks. Some of these ways are:

Main network

Roads that belong to the Insular Road Network:

• GC-15, crosses the municipality from northeast to west to end in Tejeda before passing through the Cross of Tejeda. It's the one known as road downtown, the most important route in the region and the one that vertebrates its communications, since it links with the capital of the island, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, passing through Santa Brígida. In the 20 kilometers that take place within the municipality, it gives access to important payments and places like La Lechuza, Las Lagunetas, ravine of the Mina and Cruz de Tejeda. This way, when entering the helmet, becomes Tinamar Avenue.
• GC-41the exit to the east by the known as Tenteniguada roadnear the municipal capital to Valsequillo and Telde and from there on the highway to Gran Canaria airport. The municipality takes its first 4 kilometers and the section that runs inside the hull receives the name of Calle del Agua.
• GC-42, constitutes the way of entry to the municipality from the north. Une Teror with San Mateo by Lomo Carbonero and Utiaca. Nearly half of its layout runs within the municipality.

Complementary network

Branches of the main network that start from the road indicated by its first digit, with differentiated characteristics, provide access to small population centers:

• GC-130from Llanos de la Pez and Pargana to La Calderilla.
• GC-150from Cruz Tejeda to reach Pinos de Gáldar.
• GC-230He arrives to Valleseco by Cueva Corcho.
• GC-400, it is a detour of the GC-42 that unites the dam of Aríñez and the neighborhood of Aríñez with the road GC-230.
• GC-600from Las Rosas to La Cruz de los Llanos by Cueva Grande and Las Mesas, where the recreational area is located, runs through the pine forests of Llanos de la Pez to end in Ayacata (Tejeda). A little before arriving, from a bend of the road, starts the road to Roque Nublo.

Local network

Branches of the main and complementary network that start from the road indicated by its first two digits, with the same purpose as those of the complementary network:

• GC-134, ends in the Pico de las Nieves in the municipal border with Tejeda and San Bartolomé de Tirajana.
• GC-135, up to Pico de la Gorra by the Emisoras, at the edge of the Caldera de Tirajana.
• GC-151, goes from Santa Brígida to Lomo Carbonero by Lomo Espino and La Solana bordering the Barranco de la Mina.
• GC-153, arrives to Mountain the Bodeguilla (846 msnm), in the linde with Santa Brígida.
• GC-154, part from the winemaking facilities of the Insular Winery to link the water centre and the Cabreja Mountain Viewer.
• GC-155Get down to Las Lagunetas.
• GC-414, goes to Lechucilla bordering the Higuera or Lechucilla ravine.
• GC-421to the Yedra and Cruz del Herrero
• GC-422Join the neighborhoods of Utiaca.
• GC-423It serves as access to the Herrero Cross.

Public transport

Old Guaguas Station.

Guagua

The municipality does not have its own urban lines or link the different neighborhoods between themselves and the municipal capital. This service is provided by the Global Company, which has the concession of interurban transport through guaguas throughout the island. Several lines arrive to the new Preferential Stop, located on the outskirts of the Agricultural Market, and leave from there to other localities. The Guaguas Station was closed for the subsequent start-up of parking areas and the remodeling project of the square located at the top level. The transport lines are listed below:

Taxi

As in the rest of the island's municipalities, Vega de San Mateo has a public taxi service that can be taken directly by standing on the street or going to the stop near the guaguas station. They can also be requested by telephone at the stop. The taxis of San Mateo have a taximeter and are painted white with a reproduction of the municipal shield on the front doors.

Economy

The economy of the municipality has traditionally focused on the primary sector. Livestock and, fundamentally, agriculture are the pillars of municipal development, where medium-sized crops (fruit trees, vegetables for domestic consumption and potatoes) are grown with significant fruit and vegetable production, in which the potato stands out. as the main crop, whose harvest involves a high cost due to the consumption of water that it entails. It is not for nothing that the municipality is known as la Vega for the fertility of its lands and a good example of this are the large tracts of land dedicated to the cultivation of zucchini, peach, chard, plum, pumpkin and pear, among others.

Outside the agricultural sphere, since the XIX century, the municipality held a very popular cattle fair, related to the work in the field. However, the livestock activity has experienced a clear setback in recent decades with the implementation of agricultural machinery, and today it is considered a complementary activity to agriculture. Family labor is used to make the farm profitable and the tradition for making artisan cheeses is considered important. The livestock census in 2001 showed a significant number of heads of goats (1117), followed by sheep 509 heads and cattle with 494.

In recent years, the service sector has experienced moderate growth in the municipality. In fact, 60% of the employed population of the municipality is dedicated to different tasks within this tertiary sector, among which commerce (15%), education (7.65%) and hotels and restaurants (7.24%) stand out. %), the latter branch that is experiencing some growth thanks to the large number of restaurants that can be found in the municipality and the growing offer of accommodation in rural tourism.

The municipal capital is a transit point for those coming and going from the top of the island. It celebrates a very popular agricultural and craft market on weekends, visited by more than 5,000 people, being one of the most frequented in the Canary Islands. In this market you can find a good sample of La Vega products. The cattle fair is also very popular, held mainly on the occasion of the patron saint festivities, but today with more symbolic than economic value.

Tourism

Tourism is underdeveloped in the municipality, despite having an ethnographic heritage and several places of interest. However, with the rise of rural tourism, a small offer of rural houses and hotels is growing in number and quality. In addition, the municipality is located in an environment that deserves many walks and for this it has a wide network of pedestrian itineraries, old royal roads, of great tourist, historical and ethnographic interest.

Catering

The municipality has a range of accommodation in rural areas distributed mainly in houses and rural hotels.

• The Parador de Cruz de Tejeda, located in the place of the same name, is a typical Canarian construction that stands out for the views that can be seen from its terraces and the great stone cross that presides its entrance. In its restaurant you can taste a varied sample of Canarian gastronomy with dishes such as the potage of berros, rabbit in salmorejo, baifo (cabrito), potatoes wrinkled with mojos and bienmesabe of Tejeda. It is rated with four-star category, has 43 double rooms and features a seasonal heated pool, air conditioning and heating, gym, playground and spa.

Hotel facilities in Cruz de Tejeda.

In Vega de San Mateo there are two rural hotels:

• Hotel Rural El RefugioOn the Cross of Weaverage.
• Hotel Rural Las CalasIn La Lechuza.

There are several rural houses that are managed, either by reservation centers, or directly by their owners.

In addition, the Albergue Camaretas is available for groups and associations, a classroom in nature located near the Hoya del Gamonal, municipal property and private management, with capacity for 30 people and the possibility to organize various activities in nature.

Wine growing

Agricultural market.

In the vicinity of Montaña Cabreja, the Insular winery does not work. Not surprisingly, in 2006 San Mateo became the largest producer of grapes in the Denomination of Origin Gran Canaria with a total production of 87,000 kilograms, 13% of that of the entire denomination of origin, only surpassed by the municipality neighbor of Santa Brígida.

There are 57 winegrowers on the census with registered plots in La Vega, on whose lands there are 38.83 cultivated hectares of vineyards, with the Listán Negro grape being the most common type of vine, which concentrates almost 60% of the municipality's production. Five wineries are located in San Mateo and there are four more in other towns that make wine from La Vega grapes.

Culture

	Soundscape in San Mateo Lost by El Cloquido, a library of the Canary Islands
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The main cultural offer of the municipality is programmed in the La Caldereta exhibition hall, housed in a building in the town center that is more than a century old and has been rehabilitated for cultural and exhibition purposes. Attached to this building is the Luján Pérez Drawing and Painting School. Other socio-cultural spaces in the municipality are the House of Youth and Music, the library, equipped with a study room and a multimedia room, the municipal historical archive, the municipal music school, the multipurpose socio-cultural venue and the shelter-classroom in nature of Camaretas. The cultural life of the town is dynamized through different associations and social, neighborhood, cultural and musical groups.

Crafts

Tribute to the blacksmiths.

In La Vega we will find several artisan workshops of the most varied trades and a good sample of their work every weekend exposed in the market. The famous cattle fairs and exhibitions, which are still held in the municipality on the occasion of popular or religious festivities, are another sample of crafts made by the peasants themselves, where the animals, in mutual competition, wear artistic cowbells, original saddles and other useful farm implements. Equally noteworthy are the making of traperas (tablecloth) and other garments made with wool and leather (in Las Lagunetas and Cruz de Tejeda), the cutlery with handles set in bone and horn (traditional Canarian knives), the wooden furniture carved and basketry work done with wicker and cane.

Traditions and popular festivals

The local festivals are linked to their agricultural activity, highlighting the patron saints in honor of San Mateo Apóstol (September 21) whose festivities take place throughout the month of September, among which various traditional manifestations such as a typical pilgrimage- offering to the patron, horse races and a cattle fair. The Bajada del Vino has become relevant, a celebration that promotes local wines by taking a tour of wine-growing areas and arriving in the town. Also related to peasant customs and tasks, the Farmer's Festival is celebrated on the first weekend of July, where various traditional activities take place such as threshing with cattle.

During the first half of May, the festivities in honor of the Virgin of Fátima (May 13), cover the streets of the town with multicolored alfombras for a week. Also worth noting are the Santa Ana festivities that are celebrated on July 26 of each year and the festival of the deceased, which is celebrated for the deceased on November 1, and in which a popular chestnut roastery is made in the streets of the town

The Fiestas de los Indianos are held on the second weekend of July in the Las Lagunetas neighborhood and celebrate the return of the great colony from Vega that emigrated to Cuba in the 19th century XVIII, known ever since as Indians.

Gastronomy

Usually not much different from the rest of the island. As a local gastronomic specialty, the municipality stands out for the elaboration of cheeses, in its varieties soft (the most demanded), cured and semi-cured or semi-tender; made only with cow, sheep and goat milk or with a mixture of them. La Vega has numerous restaurants where you can taste their cheeses and wines from the region. In them we can find dishes made with fresh products from San Mateo such as watercress or dandelion stews, meat prepared in all its varieties or typical pastries such as bienmesabe and sweets in general.

Education

The public educational offer of Vega de San Mateo has six infant and primary schools (up to 12 years old) and a secondary education institute (the former Vega de San Mateo Bivalent Institute) in which the levels of E.S.O., baccalaureate and vocational training cycles are studied. There is also a municipal music school where the first cycle of artistic education, music branch, as well as other extra-academic teachings and activities are taught. There are no private centers at the municipal level and its university population has to travel to the different campuses of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in other municipalities. The closest and main one, the Tafira Campus in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is 16 kilometers from the center of San Mateo.

Leisure

For the enjoyment of locals and visitors, San Mateo has a wide range of leisure activities.

Equestrian walks

There are two water centers (in Cabreja Mountain and in Llanos de Ana López) where they organize horseback riding in different areas of the municipality.

Merings and barbecues

Under the shadow of the numerous woods and pine trees that boast the municipality, there are several recreational areas provided with tables and barbecues, such as El Calero (La Lechucilla) or Llanos de Ana López (in Cueva Grande), with capacity for 500 visitors and equipped with parking, barbecues, tables with seats, drinking water, toilets, kiosco-bar and area of children.

Start of trail.

Hiking

San Mateo has always been a place of passage and good proof of this are the Royal paths and paths that run through the municipality. From La Cruz de Tejeda starts a radial network of old Real roads recently recovered. Much of those who travel through the municipality do so within the protected landscape of Las Cumbres, in a harmonious rural and forest environment.

Astronomy

The municipality has one of the best skies in Gran Canaria for astronomical observation. From the vicinity of Pico de las Nieves and in many of the peak districts of San Mateo, the conditions of visibility are suitable for the contemplation of the firmament with amateur media. In the urban center is the Roque Saucillo Astronomical Center, the first urban observatory of the Canary Islands aimed at outreach, tourism and amateur research. An ambitious project supported by AstroEduca.com in collaboration with the council of la Vega de San Mateo, where weekly activities are offered astronomical, observational and guided tours among others. Just a mile from the urban centre, in Cabreja Mountain, one of the most active non-professional observatories in Spain, from which different didactic observations and research work are carried out since its opening in 1995, under the J45 code of the Centro de Planetas Menores. In the head of the ravine of the Avejerilla, between La Calderilla and Los Pechos, is installed since the summer of 2000 the amateur observatory of the Astronomical Group of Gran Canaria, which has been the first in the Canary Islands to obtain the code Centro de Planetas Menores for the observation of asteroids and comets.

Camp

At the summit, there are some small encampment areas framed in an environment of canary pine trees with foreign pine forests, where camping is allowed in small groups previously authorized by the Environment Department of the Island Cabildo. On the road to Pico de las Nieves we find the camping area of Alto del Pozo and in the vicinity of Cueva Grande, the Llanos del Salado.

Sports

The star sport in Vega de San Mateo is soccer. The local team is the Panadería Pulido San Mateo Soccer Club with subsidiaries that play in different categories. Players like Pedro Vega Rodríguez have emerged from this youth academy, who became a member of the Unión Deportiva Las Palmas squad. Other popular sports are basketball, cycling and motor sports, with a large following. The cycling ascent to Pico de las Nieves, due to the hardness of its ramps, is practiced by professional cyclists and amateurs from all over Europe in their pre-season training sessions, taking advantage of the island's mild climate.

As for sports facilities, San Mateo has an artificial turf soccer field, a sports center, two indoor soccer fields (one of them artificial turf), a Canarian wrestling ground, two paddle tennis courts, and a municipal swimming pool in which there is a swimming school and there is an extensive program of multi-sports activities. Outside the town there are sports facilities in the neighborhoods of La Solana, Las Lagunetas, La Lechuza, Utiaca, Aríñez and Cueva Grande.

Canarian Fight

The Canarian Wrestling Club Tinamar, is the greatest exponent of the great fans for Canarian wrestling in La Vega. The origins of this hobby are uncertain, but already in the first half of the XX century, fans of this sport flocked to neighboring municipalities to enjoy the agarragadas. In the forties the Saucillo team was formed, precursor of the current Tinamar which, not having adequate facilities, trained in private premises and on the street itself, while that the fights were held where the agricultural market is located today and in the Santa Ana boulevard. Later, the municipal land would be built in front of the town's gofio mill, on Canónigo Tomás Ventura street.

In its beginnings, the wrestlers' kit was completely white to later go on to wear clothing made up of a yellow camisole and dark blue shorts. At the beginning of the seventies of the XX century, he began to defend the current colors, orange shirt and blue pants, a color combination that would end adopting the town hall for the flag of the municipality.

In 1978, the Tinamar was promoted to a preferential category for the first time in its history. In 1986 the highest regional category was reached, being one of the few clubs in the archipelago that still maintains it. In 1991 he obtained the maximum regional title by proclaiming himself champion of the Liga de Preferente Coronas and in recent years he has become runner-up in the Canary Islands Regional Government League for several seasons consecutive. Thanks to these successes, the club managed to get fans to pack grounds and sports halls, being one of the clubs that has made Canarian wrestling a mass sport.

Health

In Vega de San Mateo there are no hospitals, so primary care is only provided through the services of the health center located in the town center, with patients having to travel to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to receive specialized outpatient care or hospital services. Generally, patients are referred to the Doctor Negrín Hospital. For peripheral patients, there are local clinics in Las Lagunetas, Utiaca and Aríñez that attend on a rotating basis one or two days a week. The Health Center has a 24-hour emergency service. The pharmacy service has three dispensaries located in the town.

Places of interest

Old Town

It presents a sample of very diverse styles ranging from neoclassical, eclecticism, postwar and neocanarian. Calle Caldereta starts at the back of the town hall, a pedestrian street that reminds us of what the streets were like in the past, and where we can find a small sample of houses in the Canarian architectural style, tiled and covered with mosses. Among the most emblematic architectural complexes of the town, we can highlight the parish church, the Lourdes hermitage, the Santa Ana boulevard and the fire mill (where gofio was ground).

Parish Church of San Mateo Apóstol

Parroquial Church of Vega de San Mateo (1800).

Dedicated to Saint Matthew the Apostle, it is a building erected throughout the XIX century. Its structure shows an infrequent arrangement in this type of building, originally made up of a rectangular nave dating from 1800 to which another was attached on its north side, which was completed in 1895, of the same height but narrower, making it that causes a spatial asymmetry in its interior.

The main façade, framed by stone pilasters at its ends and topped with a cornice, is crowned with a large belfry at the base of which is the clock and in the upper part the body for three bells, all designed by José Lujan Perez.

Inside there is a carving of San Mateo that is attributed to Luján.

This church, as a whole, shows a fusion of various architectural styles where classicism, academicism and Mudejar stand out.

Santa Ana Mall

Alameda and consistory houses.

Located next to the church, it was built in 1943. For this purpose, the City Council acquired land on the site of an old bakery, whose oven was located on the site now occupied by the bandstand. Currently, together with the town hall and the church, it forms a complex in a highly refined neo-Canarian style.

The Cantonera

It is a separate set of buildings erected in the second half of the XVIII century, made up of houses between dividing facades and isolated buildings of old farms, which with the passage of time, have remained in the heart of the town center among other more recent constructions.

The houses have two heights and are topped with gabled roofs with tiled roofs. Several balconies or corridors on the upper floors protrude from the facades, supported with upright feet, all made of wood.

The complex was rehabilitated in 1999, following a project by the architect José Sacanelles, to give it new uses as a rural hotel and restaurant, and also as a cultural center, although it is currently closed and unused.

The museum displayed in its rooms an exhaustive collection of objects related to traditional economic activities that made it one of the most notable museums of all those in the Canary Islands. Its funds included a collection of more than 12,000 pieces of furniture, ceramics, handicrafts, kitchen utensils, objects of worship or farm equipment, used by farmers, potters, weavers, blacksmiths, etc., which made up a good memory of the agricultural activity that predominated in the municipality. In 2012, after being closed for five years, it was acquired by the Vega de San Mateo City Council, and it is currently closed.

The mill of fire

San Mateo firemill.

This was one of the fifteen mills that came into operation in San Mateo, dedicated mainly to grinding corn to obtain gofio. Its particularity resided in the diesel engine that was installed in 1927 by its owner Dionisio Jiménez, and that made the entire mill work.

The machinery is made up of a 25 CV Ruston heat engine that was used to drive the grinding machinery and a 15 kW dynamo that was used to supply electricity for the first time to the town, until in 1943 the concession was delivered to Unelco. The grinding was carried out with a flour mill, of the same brand as the motor, with two sets of stones and an iron frame.

During the 75 years that this mill was in operation, it was a very popular meeting point in San Mateo, a regular place for social gatherings and the town's newscast, and some political rallies were held in its facilities during the Second Republic. It is located inside a 190 m² building on Calle del Agua, at the exit of the urban area towards Valsequillo, with part of its machinery in good condition, which is still in operation today supported by more modern methods.

Agricultural and Craft Market

It has a great tradition (it was regulated as such from 1890) and is very frequented by people from all over the island. It is held every Saturday and Sunday. The facilities where it is located were built between 1979 and 1983 at the initiative of a group of farmers and consists of two main warehouses, one for agricultural products and sweets, while the other warehouse is for the sale of handicrafts and goods. diverse, as a rake.

In this market you can find fruits, vegetables, pastries, bread, honey, cheese, medicinal herbs, handicrafts, and other products from the area that can be purchased in the many stalls of this traditional market every weekend.

Roque Saucillo Astronomical Center

The Roque Saucillo Astronomical Center is the first permanent urban astronomical observatory oriented towards dissemination, tourism and amateur research.

Cabreja Mountain

San Mateo Market.

Leaving San Mateo towards the summit we find a detour to Montaña Cabreja (1000 masl), a place from which a beautiful panoramic view of the center-north of the island of Gran Canaria is contemplated, from the summit to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and where a viewpoint restaurant has been installed that was operated by the San Mateo butcher until 1995.

Las Lagunetas Terraces

The terraces represent a singular strategy for the use of land for crops on the steep slopes of the valleys and mountainous spaces with little flat soil. Although in Gran Canaria there are other areas that have a high number of terraces, it is in the upper part of La Vega, in the area of Las Lagunetas, where there is a greater density of them. They form a unique fold to the contour lines, in a terrain heavily covered by vegetation and between 950 and 1450 meters high. The oldest terraces date from the XVI century and were placed near the water springs that abounded in the area, to later continue extending along the slopes as the use of canalizations became widespread. More recently, when some of these sources dried up, the exploitation of the aquifer began by opening wells. The ponds to store irrigation water are dug into the rock on the middle of the slope and the rest is used for agriculture, giving rise to a very unique agricultural landscape, integrated into the environment, and constitutes a sample of ingenuity and enormous construction work. of the stone masters.

Mine Ravine

This is one of the few ravines in Gran Canaria through which water flows permanently. It is born in San Mateo and runs through the northeast of the island to come to end, downstream, as Barranco de Guiniguada. It gets its name from a tunnel drilled into the rock (mine) that transfers water from the Tejeda basin to the Guiniguada basin. This permanent humidity allows us to preserve vestiges of the laurel vegetation and of the old infrastructure of hydraulic use, existing in the area.

Cross of Tejeda

Main access to the Parador.

La Cruz de Tejeda, due to its location in the geographic center of the island, was once a crossroads. Still at the end of the thirties it was not a consolidated entity, although in its vicinity there were some abandoned cultivation plots and a cross. It was also a meeting area for flocks of sheep and goats that grazed in the area in the summer months.

After 1938, when the mountain lodge designed by the Gran Canarian artist Néstor de la Torre and his brother Miguel was built, this enclave became a tourist reference point for the entire island. In 1968 it became a National Parador until 1980, when it would lose that condition to become an inn, keeping only the restaurant and the terrace-viewpoint in operation. After its reform, it rejoined the Spanish network of Paradores Nacionales.

Today roads from San Mateo, Tejeda and Artenara reach this place, and a good network of paths depart from it, old rehabilitated royal roads, whose mission was to communicate the payments that today the roads bring us comfortably. It is located at 1509 meters above sea level in the Degollada de Constantino, at the foot of the mountain of the same name.

The place gets its name from the cross carved in green stone that marks the center of the island. Nearby we find a rural hotel, several restaurants and various stalls selling local products, among which the traperas, the bienmesabe and the marzipan from Tejeda stand out.

Petrified Tempest

Petrified season: Roque Bentayga from the Cross of Tejeda.

The petrified storm that Miguel de Unamuno baptized, arises from a sunken caldera, carved by the waters and flooded by lava. In this landscape, the rocks that came to plug the craters stand out, among which the Roque Nublo (1700 masl), symbol of Gran Canaria, the Fraile or the Bentayga stand out.

Snow Peak

Snow of the Canons (1699).

From the Pico de las Nieves (1950 masl), perfectly recognizable by the building that has a large camouflaged ball, belonging to a military air surveillance station, there are splendid views of the entire ridge area. Also known as Pozo de las Nieves, this place owes its name to the canon of the Cathedral José de Leive who devised the construction of several wells in the century XVII to preserve the snow that fell sporadically some years, even so more frequently than at present, for its later transfer to Las Palmas. Discovered in 1998 and restored in 2003, today the Los Canónigos well, dating from 1699, and the nearby Grande well, the first snow well to be excavated in the Canary Islands in 1694, are preserved.

In this place, behind the military installations, we can find a watchtower, built on the Jierro canyon, with a view of the Tirajana caldera and the southern beaches. Turning around, we will be able to see Roque Nublo and the peak of Teide, on the neighboring island of Tenerife.

Illustrious people

Panoramic views

Snowscape of Mount Alto del Pozo, next to the camping area and next to Pico de las Nieves, in February 2005. The hail and snow are occasional but frequent in recent years. When they fall, they leave us prints like this image taken near the highest point of the San Mateo and the island. Near it, the Pozo de las Nieves, a toponymous chosen because in this area there were a series of fridges or snow wells where the ice was collected and then moved to the Cathedral of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for commercialization.

Panoramic of the Gran Canaria summit. From left to right El Montañón, Pargana, the Plains of the Pez, Morro de la Salvia, Moriscos and part of Monte Constantino. In the background, the Roque Nublo and, a little further down, the Bentayga emerge from the Caldera de Tejeda. On the horizon, the snowy silhouette of the Pico Teide, on the neighbouring island of Tenerife, stands on the horizon sea of clouds. Photograph taken from the Snow Pico.