Yaiza

Yaiza is a municipality on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain. It lies in the southwest of the island and forms part of the province of Las Palmas. The municipality is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, south and east. In the west is the lagoon of Charco Verde. To the north the Timanfaya National Park is partly within the municipality. The eastern part of the municipality is mountainous, and south west of the mountains the Rubicon plain stretches to the coast.At the southern end of the municipality of Yaiza, in the area known as "El Rubicón", the first European settlement in the Canary Islands in 1402, where the conquest of the Archipelago began he was installed. In this place the Cathedral of Saint Martial of Limoges. This cathedral was destroyed by English pirates in the sixteenth century and is currently in Femés, the Hermitage of Saint Martial of Limoges dedicated to this saint. This diocese was moved in 1483 to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Roman Catholic Diocese of Canarias).The largest town of the municipality is Playa Blanca on the south coast. The administrative centre is the much smaller town of Yaiza. The total population was 15,571 in 2013, and the area is 211.85km2. Yaiza is about 22km west of the island capital Arrecife.