Where does the name “Capilla Cayrasco” come from?
Capilla Cayrasco is named after Bartolomé Cairasco (or Cayrasco) de Figueroa (1538-1610), a noted Canarian poet, playwright and musician. He is considered the father of Canarian literature.
“Capilla” is the Spanish for “Chapel”.
Bartolome Cairasco de Figueroa was born in Las Palmas (Canary Islands) in 1538, a descendant of Italo-Niçois/Genoese emigrants and aboriginal Canarians. After studies in Seville, Italy and Portugal he was ordained a priest and finally settled in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Cairasco de Figueroa cultivated the verso esdrújulo, a type of poetry of which he was to become the foremost exponent, receiving the admiration of the Spanish writers Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega, and exercising a major influence on the poet Luis de Góngora. His magnum opus was the ‘Templo Militante’, published in four volumes from 1602 to 1614.
In 1580 he founded the first humanist academy in the Canary Islands, the Academia del Jardín, attracting a great number of artists, literati and musicians. The beautiful square pictured above is the Plaza Cairasco in Las Palmas, complete with a monument to the great writer. The building behind the statue is built on the site of Cairasco’s own house, where his humanist academy held their meetings in the gardens.
Cairasco took an active part in the succesful defence of Gran Canaria against the attacks of the armadas led by the corsairs Francis Drake & John Hawkins (1595) and by Pieter van der Does (1599), victories which he celebrated in poetry.
A noted musician, composer of chanzonetas and madrigals, he was also a singer and organist in the cathedral, where he held the posts of Canon and Master of Ceremonies. Bartolomé Cairasco de Figueroa died in 1610, and is buried in the Capilla de Santa Catalina in Las Palmas Cathedral.
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