What is the Casa de las Señoras?

A coastal house more than 150 years old in Pájara (Jandía, Fuerteventura), also known as Cueva de la Negra, tied to the fishing families of Jandía, according to Coalición Canaria.

Who ordered the demolition?

The Demarcación de Costas de Canarias, the State body managing the public maritime-terrestrial domain, through a file under the Ley de Costas, according to Canarias7 and eldiario.es.

Is the house protected as a BIC?

No. The sources speak of a possible age and a possible ethnographic interest, but not of a formal declaration as a Bien de Interés Cultural.

Was it actually demolished on 26 August?

It is not publicly confirmed. As the underlying reports closed, it was not known whether the demolition was carried out, halted, or suspended. The result remains open.

FUERTEVENTURA · HERITAGE

Coastal authority orders demolition of the centenary Casa de las Señoras in Pájara

The State's coastal authority, the Demarcación de Costas de Canarias, ordered the demolition of a centenary coastal house known as Casa de las Señoras, also called Cueva de la Negra, in the municipality of Pájara, in the Jandía area of southern Fuerteventura. According to Canarias7 and eldiario.es (Canarias Ahora), the demolition was set for Wednesday 26 August 2026.

26 August 2026 · By Julia Roca Bethencourt · 5 min

Old stone house on the coast (illustrative)

Photo: Dario, CC BY-SA 1.0 (Symbolbild).

The day before, the Cabildo de Fuerteventura, the island council, adopted emergency precautionary measures to halt the operation, while the owners filed a request of their own. At the time of reporting, it was not publicly confirmed whether the demolition was carried out, left suspended, or stopped by a court.

The demolition order and the 26 August date

The starting point is a case handled by the Demarcación de Costas de Canarias, the State body that manages the public maritime-terrestrial domain. According to Canarias7, Costas notified that the demolition of the Casa de las Señoras would take place on Wednesday 26 August 2026, which triggered the reaction of the island authorities in the preceding hours.

The sources consulted do not spell out the specific legal grounds of the Costas file beyond framing it within coastal law. The house stands on the first line of the shore, inside the area governed by the Ley de Costas.

What the Casa de las Señoras is

It is a coastal dwelling more than 150 years old. The party Coalición Canaria describes it as the last standing built testimony of the old coastal settlement of Cueva de la Negra, historically tied to the fishing families of Jandía. The building sits within an old population nucleus and near an archaeological site.

Because of its location and its link to traditional fishing life, various voices attribute a possible ethnographic interest to it. That value, however, does not rest on any formal protection, but on the building's age and its role within a vanished coastal settlement.

The Cabildo's emergency measures and the owners' request

On 25 August 2026, the Cabildo de Fuerteventura, through its Cultural Heritage area, adopted precautionary measures with immediate effect to halt the demolition. The island institution cited the risk of irreversible damage to the cultural and archaeological heritage of the area and communicated the decision to the competent administrations after Costas had notified the 26 August date.

The Cabildo explained that it acted through an urgent procedure because no prior heritage studies existed on the building. On that same 25 August, the owners of the house filed their own request for precautionary measures to stop the demolition.

The conflict over the Ley de Costas

The case falls within the application of the Ley de Costas, the coastal law that governs the public maritime-terrestrial domain. Coalición Canaria links the file to the way that law is applied to the islands' traditional coastal settlements and criticises what it regards as the central government's unfamiliarity with the singularities of these Canary settlements.

The clash sets, on one side, the State's authority over the shore and, on the other, the island's wish to preserve a vestige of the fishing settlement. The sources consulted do not, for now, record a detailed response from the coastal authority to the island's precautionary measures.

What remains open

The limits of what is known matter. The Casa de las Señoras is not formally declared a protected cultural asset (Bien de Interés Cultural, BIC): the sources speak of a possible age and a possible ethnographic interest, not of any recognised legal protection. That very absence of studies and prior legal shielding is one of the reasons the Cabildo acted urgently.

The outcome is not confirmed either. As the underlying reports closed, it was not publicly known whether the demolition planned for 26 August was carried out, halted, or suspended by judicial or administrative means. The result remains open.

What precautionary measures are: provisional, urgent decisions taken by an administration or a court to prevent irreparable harm while the substance of a matter is still being resolved.
Here they aim to halt the demolition in order to buy time and assess the building's possible heritage and archaeological value before it is irreversibly lost.

Read with care: the Casa de las Señoras has no formal declaration as a Bien de Interés Cultural; the sources refer to a possible interest, not to recognised protection.
Moreover, it is not publicly confirmed whether the demolition planned for 26 August 2026 was carried out, halted, or suspended: the outcome remains open.

Key facts

The Demarcación de Costas de Canarias ordered the demolition of the Casa de las Señoras (Cueva de la Negra), in Pájara, Jandía (Fuerteventura), scheduled for 26 August 2026 (Canarias7; eldiario.es / Canarias Ahora)
The house is more than 150 years old and, according to Coalición Canaria, the last standing built testimony of the old coastal settlement of Cueva de la Negra, tied to the fishermen of Jandía
It sits within an old population nucleus and near an archaeological site
On 25 August 2026 the Cabildo de Fuerteventura adopted precautionary measures with immediate effect, through an urgent procedure and in the absence of prior heritage studies
The owners filed their own request for precautionary measures on the same day
The file falls within the Ley de Costas; Coalición Canaria criticises the central government's unfamiliarity with these settlements. There is no evidence the house is a BIC, nor of the 26 August outcome

FAQ

What is the Casa de las Señoras?: A coastal house more than 150 years old in Pájara (Jandía, Fuerteventura), also known as Cueva de la Negra, tied to the fishing families of Jandía, according to Coalición Canaria.
Who ordered the demolition?: The Demarcación de Costas de Canarias, the State body managing the public maritime-terrestrial domain, through a file under the Ley de Costas, according to Canarias7 and eldiario.es.
What did the Cabildo de Fuerteventura do?: On 25 August 2026, through its Cultural Heritage area, it adopted precautionary measures with immediate effect to halt the demolition, citing the risk of irreversible damage and acting through an urgent procedure.
Is the house protected as a BIC?: No. The sources speak of a possible age and a possible ethnographic interest, but not of a formal declaration as a Bien de Interés Cultural.
Was it actually demolished on 26 August?: It is not publicly confirmed. As the underlying reports closed, it was not known whether the demolition was carried out, halted, or suspended. The result remains open.

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