The "Castillo de San José" (San José Castle) was constructed in the same period as the popular bridge "Puente de Las Bolas" of Arrecife. The year of completion was 1779 as can be seen over the entrance door.

It is located on the small promontory of "La Cueva" de Inés at 8 metres above sealevel.

The project was carried out under the aegis of our then King, the magnanimous Carlos lll, the construction works being supervised by the building engineer Alfonso Ochando. The enterprise served a double purpose: firstly, to create defences for the port of "Naos" and the surrounding coastline, and the second not less imperative task, by way of creating a new labour market to alleviate the profound poverty the island's inhabitants were then undergoing. This is why it also became known as the "Hunger Fortress".

Despite its age, the building remains in good condition, due to the solidity of its structure of blocks of basalt stone and mortar. The ground plan is semicircular, and the rooms are distributed over two floors. There is the peculiarity, that the main entrance is on the top floor, because the lower floor here is situated below ground.

Passing over the drawbridge you enter an especially spacious hall with a tunnel vault. By a narrow stairway on the left of the entrance, you go down to another hall of similar characteristics. Once you have crossed this hall, you use another stairway to go up to the rooftop. Apart from these two superposed halls, there are various smaller rooms which were used as storerooms, gunpowder magazines and dungeons, as well as a large cistern of drinking water for the garrison.

To the historic value of this riparian fortress, the recently obtained one as a museum of contemporary art must be added. The necessary work for this new cultural purpose was completed in 1976. This awe-inspiring building, once used for the lodging of troops and military purposes, is nowadays embellished with pictures and sculptures of the most important contemporary artists.

The castle has been complemented with an annex, used as a bar-restaurant. You reach it from the castle's interior, passing over the top of the water cistern and an open stairway. From its large panoramic windows you have a fascinating view of the fishing port of Naos and the port of Los "Mármoles" for goods traffic and passenger transport. For many luxurious transatlantic cruisers from all over the world the stopover in Lanzarote is a must.

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