Six decades after its inauguration, the Hotel Folías remains a privileged witness to the birth of Maspalomas Costa Canaria. It was 1965 when Francisco Díaz-Casanova and a handful of visionaries defied widespread disbelief and built the first grand hotel in the southern tourist area of Gran Canaria. Time proved them right. That "madness" is now a living history of modern tourism in the Canary Islands.
But to understand the scope of this feat, it's necessary to go back even further, to the 1961 International Ideas Competition, which gave rise to the Maspalomas Costa Canaria urban development project. That was the seed that led to the construction of not only the Hotel Folías, but also an entire tourism model that would forever transform the economy, landscape, and identity of southern Gran Canaria.
A seed planted with a Canarian vision
Before major European capital landed on the island, it was island businessmen who invested in the south. The Castillo family opened the restaurant "La Rotonda" and the "Los Caracoles" resort in 1964. And with them came a real estate boom that attracted a large portion of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria's middle and upper classes, who invested their banana savings in villas, apartments, and bungalows.
Among them, Francisco Díaz-Casanova Marrero stood out, who commissioned the renowned architect Manuel de la Peña to design an avant-garde hotel. That design broke new ground: eight floors that housed not only tourist rooms but also employee lounges on the rooftop, due to the lack of residential infrastructure.
A hotel with art at its foundations
The Folías was not just a tourist attraction, but a cultural statement. De la Peña sought to give it a Canarian identity by incorporating five works by local artists such as Millares, Martín Chirino, César Manrique, and Pepe Dámaso into its design. The latter created the iconic mural "Cosmos," which decades later would be restored and moved to the main hall, visible even from the street.
The opening, on December 16, 1965, was a gala no one wanted to miss. Everyone was invited, despite the fact that a small crowd was expected because it was held during the week, in San Agustín, at 19:30 p.m., and with tuxedo dress code. The result: a full house. “It was the whole of Las Palmas, and that was crazy back then,” recall witnesses of that milestone.
From oblivion to resurrection
The history of Hotel Folías has not been a straightforward one. Over the decades, it went from hotel to aparthotel, and from icon to almost forgotten symbol of modern Canarian architecture devastated by speculation and institutional indifference. While projects like El Abanico and the Hotel Maspalomas Oasis fell under the hammer, the Folías held firm... until it hit rock bottom in 2011.
It was then that, like a phoenix, the hotel rose again thanks to the drive of its new managers. José Hernández Barbosa, president of the owners' association, led a complex restoration that not only saved the building but also reconnected it with its original essence. The young director, Elena Quintana Correa, and the operating company, Contur Folías, SL, have restored the hotel to its place on the tourist map with innovation, strategic alliances, and a renewed commitment to its cultural heritage.
A future with roots
The Hotel Folías continues to welcome thousands of visitors each year, thanks to tour operators such as Thomas Cook, Alltours, and Jumbo Canarias. But it also continues to offer something more: memory, identity, and a lesson in how tourism can be born from the local, the artistic, and the human.
On this 60th anniversary, it's only fitting to pay tribute not only to those who built it in 1965, but also to those who saved it in 2011. And to remember that modern heritage, although not always officially recognized, is part of the collective soul of a land that found a second life in the south.
May it never again be on the brink of extinction. Because if tourism in Maspalomas ever had a kilometer zero, it was—and still is—the Hotel Folías.
