Fortaleza de Chipude
Fortaleza de Chipude
Fortaleza de Chipude (Chipude, Vallehermoso) — this table-shaped summit (1,240 meters in height), which can only be accessed by a narrow path that exists between the rocks, was used as a refuge for the islanders in previous times. It is located toward the center of the island (within the vicinity of the village of Chipude, and just south of Garajonay National Park). But that was not their only use since that mountain (or “fortress”) served as a temporary settlement for a community of shepherds and defense watchtower when there was some kind of danger (such as the failed Portuguese invasion of the island in the early 1400s – before the Spaniards came along). Because of its shape, the Fortaleza is sometimes compared to Table Mountain near Cape Town, South Africa.
Guidebooks will tell you that La Fortaleza was a sacred place to the pre-Hispanic inhabitants of La Gomera, the Guanches. On the plateau you can find several sanctuaries of sacrificial altars, however you have to search carefully. Chipude itself was a longtime settlement of the Guanches, before the Spaniard conquest of the island in the early 1400s.