Cueva de Chinguaro

Cueva de Chinguaro is a cave located in Güímar on Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). According to historians was the cave-palace of King guanche of menceyato de Güímar, Acaimo.

In this cave the guanches worshiped the Virgin of Candelaria (Saint Patron of Canary Islands) as the goddess Chaxiraxi (worshiped in the Canary Islands until the conquest of the Canary Islands) until the image was later identified with the Virgin Mary and was moved by the Guanches themselves to the Cueva de Achbinico in Candelaria. This cave was the first shrine of the Virgin of Candelaria, and the first Aboriginal shrine which contained a Christian image in the Canary Islands, although at the time the Guanches were still in animistic religion, only later to be Christianized.

She has appeared several times guanche archaeological tools, so the cave is also a place of great archaeological importance.

References

• Cueva de Chinguaro

See also

• Virgin of Candelaria
• Güímar
• Cueva de Achbinico