Puntagorda - popular village in the northwest
With around 2000 inhabitants Puntagorda is one of the smaller but particularly charming communities of La Palma. The climate is dry and sunny in summer, in winter the north-east trade winds give the village heavy precipitation from time to time, which makes the gardens and fields very fertile. Over the past decades, organic vegetable growing has become established - the farmers' market held on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings has become a magnet for locals and guests alike.
Originally, the population lived mainly from almond cultivation, and thousands of almond trees still immerse the surrounding area in picturesque pink between the end of January and the end of March.
The numerous Portuguese settlers made San Mauro their patron saint in the 16th century and gave its name to the first settlement in the Puntagorda area. In honour of him they began in 1571 with the construction of a large, single-nave church in Canarian style, the 'Iglesia de San Mauro Abad'. It has been reconstructed several times over the centuries, has neoclassical and baroque style elements and still serves today as a worth seeing and listening procession which takes place in the middle of January as well as a big fiesta with musical and culinary highlights in August.
The old and the new 'harbour', in former times actually the only possibility to visit the place, are today popular weekend and summer destinations for the locals. Bathing is possible in summer, in winter only in very calm weather.
The southern entrance to the village is marked by a 600-year-old dragon tree, to which a small park with picnic facilities was dedicated.
The old dragon tree of Puntagorda …
... landmark of the community.
Its seeds are popular souvenirs for your own cultivation on the windowsill.
The dragon tree is in fact a perennial.
... to a wild and romantic landscape.
The church of the patron saint San Mauro Abad…
.... with baroque bell holder …
... and the best place for a happy fiesta.
false pepper trees provide cool shade…
... and lend romantic flair.
The 'old port', formerly the only access to the community.
… Basaltsäulen mit ihrer stark ausgeprägten ... basalt columns with their highly pronounced crystalline structure from the enormous pressure that weighed on them at great depths for millions of years before a volcanic eruption brought them to daylight.
A soft play of colours in an archaic landscape.
Sukkuleen of the arid zone between 0 and 200 meters above sea level…
... and gnarled Canary pines at altitudes between 1000 and 1900 m characterize the extreme locations of the municipality…
... while the place itself is dominated by almonds.
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