Discover El Cercado: Pottery, Trails and Traditions

El Cercado is La Gomera’s largest centre of pre-colonial pottery made without a potter’s wheel. The village’s female potters remain active and continue to work with these traditional techniques. One of the characteristic vessels is the Carabucho, which is used for milking goats. El Cercado therefore focuses both on a living craft tradition and on a specific object that represents it.

Culture and Craftsmanship

Traditional pottery kilns have been preserved in El Cercado. The Las Loceras Interpretation Centre is located in the village centre and presents the individual stages of pottery-making – from obtaining the raw materials to firing the pieces in wood-fired kilns. Interactive panels, exhibitions featuring pieces from different stages of production and explanatory videos show the process not only as a finished result, but also in its various stages. This makes it possible to understand the connection between raw materials, processing and firing.

Trails through the Landscape

Stage 3 of the Camino Natural Cumbres de La Gomera is 14.2 kilometres long and leads from Chipude via El Cercado and Las Hayas towards Vallehermoso. The section through El Cercado features Canary Island palms, gardens and old terraces in the Barranco de La Matanza. After crossing the village, the stage leaves the paved area and continues as a trail across terraced slopes above the upper Barranco del Agua.

Another route, La Calera – El Cercado – Laguna Grande, leads from El Cercado into Garajonay National Park. The surroundings of this trail feature traditional architecture, old kilns and cultivated terraces with grapevines and fruit trees. The recommended Pueblos de medianías driving route begins in the municipality of Valle Gran Rey and heads towards the village of El Cercado. The trails therefore differ in their spatial course and in the landscape and cultural features they connect.

For day planning, this results in two clearly distinct trail profiles: Stage 3 is described as a 14.2-kilometre connection between several named places, while the La Calera – El Cercado – Laguna Grande route names El Cercado as the starting point for the trail into Garajonay National Park. Those who also take the character of the village into account can read the landscapes together with traces of craftsmanship and the agricultural features of the surrounding area, without equating the two routes.

Festivals and Flavours

The festival of Nuestra Señora del Pino, the patron saint of the village, is celebrated in El Cercado on the last weekend of July. During the procession, traditional chácaras and drums from La Gomera can be heard. This cultural experience also includes tastings in a rural setting and fresh wines with a volcanic character. Craftsmanship, festival traditions and regional produce thus appear as different, distinct facets of the village.

More Village Pages

More village pages: Alajero, Vallehermoso, Arure, Valle Gran Rey, Hermigua, Taguluche, Erque, San Sebastián De La Gomera.

Return to the main travel overview: La Gomera.