Lanzarote -The seven Tourist Centres - Created by César Manrique La Casa Museo del Campesino

"La Casa Museo del Campesino" (The Farmhouse Museum) lies almost in the geographical centre of the island. Its doors first opened to the public in 1978.

The dazzling white walls, the green painted doors and windows and the airy chimneys of remarkable oriental reminiscence epitomize Lanzarote's genuine rural architectural style.

As the name already implies, it is a reproduction of an ancient farmhouse. In the form of a functional ethnological museum, in its rooms and other outbuildings there are a series of domestic utensils and farming tools to be found which were part of a traditional farmhouse. Many of those, because of being obsolete, now belong to the nostalgic relics of the past.

Apart from the kitchen, dining room and others which are in line with the vernacular architecture and outfitted with utensils characteristic for a farmhouse, there are workshops and exhibition rooms of crafts, typical of the island. There are specialists in charge who show the visitor the different techniques used in the making of the respective articles.

An important facet of this outstanding art centre is the gastronomic one. In its homely restaurant the visitor will find the taste of the traditional gastronomic way of life. There is an interesting selection of the island's most popular dishes and wines which go from the fish stew "sancocho" or the typical thick farmer's soup "potaje" to the delicious dessert "frangollo"; not to mention the ancestral "gofio" - roast grain kneaded within a goat's skin bag - that used to accompany the daily meals as nowadays does bread. Excelling are the famous wines made from the malvasía and moscatel grape.

The point of conspicuous reference to this Farmhouse Museum is the "Monumento a la Fecundidad" (Monument to Fecundity) erected on the contiguous rock Peña de Tajaste, a sculptural work created by the universal artist from Lanzarote, Cesar Manrique.

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