On your right is La Regenta Art Center, a contemporary art space with a past that smells faintly of tobacco and industry... even if the smoke is long gone. This building started life around the 1940s as a cigarette factory, designed by architect Fernando Delgado. Picture workers filing in, machines clacking, and that sharp, sweet cured-leaf scent hanging in the air. Then in the 1980s, the Canary Islands government bought it and chose a better habit: art. After renovations, it opened as an exhibition center in 1987.
Take a look at the façade: clean lines, simple geometry, with a nod toward art deco. Step inside and it’s organized around a big central patio with surrounding galleries, like traditional Canarian courtyard homes... only instead of family gossip, you get installations and painting.
La Regenta runs rotating shows year-round, plus a documentation center, workshops, and studios where younger artists can experiment, swap ideas, and actually make work. A factory again... just with fewer nicotine breaks.
When you’re set, Playa de Las Canteras is a 10-minute walk heading north.
