Santa Brígida

Long before Spanish colonisation, the area was home to an Aboriginal settlement known as Sataute or Tasantejo — a name linked to the abundance of palm trees in the zone, and the root of the local demonym *satauteño*. After the conquest of Gran Canaria, Castilian settlers divided up the land and water through the *repartimiento* system, converting forest that had sustained the Aboriginal population into gardens and cultivated fields.

The town played an unexpected role in island governance when Dutch pressure forced the island's institutions to relocate here, briefly making it the capital and military headquarters of Gran Canaria for a week.

For much of its early history, the municipality covered a broader territory. The area now known as San Mateo was simply a district called La Vega Alta, while present-day Santa Brígida was La Vega Baja, and the zone between them — today El Madroñal — was La Vega de Enmedio. Population growth and demand for local administration led, on 22 December 1800, to a formal petition before the Real Audiencia, which eventually resulted in San Mateo being separated as its own administrative unit.

In 1943, the provincial council selected Santa Brígida's mayor, Francisco Fioll Pérez, as its representative to the First Legislature of the Spanish Cortes (1943–1946), where he represented the municipalities of the Las Palmas province.

The valleys of La Angostura and Las Meleguinas contain extensive traces of the island's Aboriginal inhabitants — cave dwellings cut into the rock, grain stores, and ancient paths — enough for the area to be declared a site of cultural interest. The archaeological site of El Tejar, found on 16 July 1988, shows evidence of an Aboriginal burial mound alongside ceramics, vessels, and *pintaderas*. On the northern wall of the Caldera de Bandama, the Cueva de los Canarios served as an Aboriginal granary and contains Libyan-Berber inscriptions; its vessels are now held by the Museo Canario.

Nearby, on the wall of the Caldereta volcano, the Cueva de los Frailes revealed a complex of 37 natural caves when excavated in 1933.