Mirador del Río

Mirador del Río is a viewpoint at the northern tip of Lanzarote that is almost invisible until you are inside it. César Manrique, the island's artist and architect, built it between 1971 and 1973 into the edge of the Famara cliffs at a spot called Batería del Río, about 475 metres above the sea, and clad it in rough volcanic stone so that from the outside it reads as part of the rock. Entry is through a narrow, winding passage that shuts out the view entirely, which is the point: it opens suddenly into two broad vaulted rooms, and the full width of the ocean appears at once through two great windows that Manrique called the eyes of the Mirador.

What those eyes look onto is El Río, the strait that separates Lanzarote from La Graciosa, about two kilometres wide. The small island lies spread out below, and on clear days the view runs on past it to the islets of Montaña Clara and Roque del Oeste and, furthest out, Alegranza, together the Chinijo Archipelago. At the foot of the cliff lies one of the oldest salt marshes in the Canary Islands. Above the rooms, a viewing platform set into the lava rock opens the panorama to the wind.

The building is a compact statement of what Manrique wanted for Lanzarote: architecture that sits within the volcanic landscape rather than on top of it, with soft curves and hardly a right angle, and with its interiors given over to light and to what lies outside. The technical realisation was carried out by Eduardo Cáceres and Jesús Soto. The site has older layers too: at the end of the 19th century, at the time of the Spanish-American War, an artillery battery was installed here to watch shipping in the strait, and its remains can still be seen just east of the viewpoint. The surroundings have been declared a protected natural area.

Getting there

The Mirador is at the northern end of Lanzarote, The town of Teguise is about 19 km away, and César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport (ACE) is about 32 km to the south.