Achbinico Cave

Pilgrims still come to the bronze Virgin of Candelaria inside the cave, taking one candle and leaving another. The chamber runs deep under a domed ceiling, 14 m long and 5 m high, and the chapel built against the rock hides its mouth from the street.

Those candles have a long line behind them. Ash layers in the cave floor, carbon-dated to more than 3,000 years, come from a fire kept permanently alight here long before Christianity reached the island. In 1446 the Guanche king Acaymo of Güimar had the statue of the Virgin carried here from his cave-palace at Chinguaro, and Guanches were baptised inside. A painting on one wall tells the story of that move. In 1497 Alonso Fernández de Lugo held the island's first Candlemas in the cave.

• Outside the major celebrations you may find only the chapel front that covers the cave mouth, so pair the visit with the basilica.
• The font used to baptise Guanches in the cave is kept in the basilica's camarín.
• Both names are in use: Cueva de Achbinico and Cueva de San Blas.
• Free public toilets are about 240 m from the cave.

The cave sits on the seafront in Candelaria, just behind the Basilica of Our Lady of Candelaria, so the basilica is the landmark to aim for. Drivers have parking close by: one area about 60 m away and a free gravel car park about 150 m away. By bus, the nearest stop is Colegio Principe Felipe, about 480 m away in a straight line, and from there you walk down to the basilica and round to the cave behind it.

Best: 2–3 February, for Candlemas and the feast of Saint Blas.

Avoid: a trip made for the cave alone on an ordinary day.

The cave keeps its old February cycle, with a ceremony for the Virgin of Candelaria on 2 February and Saint Blas carried in procession around the Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias on 3 February, while outside the major celebrations its doors are often shut.