The Villa Winter

In the southern part of the island, in Cofete, you can find the legendary Villa Winter. Cofete is a lonely place and the Villa is a mysterious witness of the past. Although the Villa Winter is mentioned in all travelguides, it is not easy to reach. You can only reach it through a bumpy dustroad and with a four-wheel-drive. The place is impressive and massive, two stories high, with notably round arches and a round tower that faces northeast. Architectural details like a coatof arms of the Winter family above the main entrance and a crocodile head cut out of wood make the Villa look like a castle.

Everything started back in the thirties, as German engineer Gustav Winter settled down in Morro Jable, at that time only a little fishing village. Just a few weeks before, he had signed a contract on the Spanish mainland to lease the whole peninsula of Jandia. Gustav Winter was a very conspicuous person who wore dark sunglasses and was always accompanied by a large black dog. Gustav Winter contributed to the development of Morro Jable and Jandia by building a school and a church and by starting to build a road to end the isolation of the peninsula. He also took the initiative of giving Morro Jable her first proper harbour and planted more than ten thousand pinetrees on the Pico del Zarza, of which none of them are left. Don Gustavo, as he was called by the local inhabitants, recruited men from the nearby villages to built his Villa. It was built under strict secrecy rules. Every morning the builders were brought to the building site and in the evening everyone had to leave the area, with the borders watched by guardesman.

The friendship between Hitler and Franco made it possible, for a major part of the peninsula Jandia to be declared a military zone where no people were allowed. The former inhabitants were driven away without any financial compensation or were forced to move to another village. There is written proof that in 1938 there was a meeting between Winter and the III-Canaris defence. It was agreed that Winter would carry out important economical projects for the third Reich in Jandia and that he was allowed to recruit German workers for that purpose. For the construction of a road to Cofete political prisoners from the concentration camp in Tefia were used. The mysterious cemetery near the beach has more than once ledto speculation about the working conditions of these men. In 1941 Jandia was bought by "Dehesa de Jandia S.A." who assigned Gustav Winter to be the manager. Both on the premises of the villa and 200 meter to the east, parts of a railway track can be found. So apparently there was also construction work going on on the mountainside.

There is evidence that Fuerteventura, because of the fact that it is favourably situated, should have been a submarine base for the German Navy during the Second World War. It is certain, that there would have been submarines in the waters around the Canary Islands. There is written proof that between March and July 1941 German submarines had been in the harbour of Las Palmas at least six times. It is likely, that the tower of the Villa Winter served as a beacon for submarines and airplanes, that wanted to land on the nearby, little airport of Jandia.

Gustav Winter and his dog Die Villa

When reading about the history of the Villa Winter, one comes, more than once, across speculations about a possible subterranean submarine harbour. And everyone who knows the geological history of the Canaries, with the many lavatunnels it has got, knows that that might be possible. It is even said, that there are still two complete submarines in it, that officially are claimed to have sunk. In the seventies, a team consisting of people from Spain and Austria tried to discover the submarines, and lost their lives doing that. It is said that their yacht exploded, but that story was never confirmed. A further indication of a possible military purpose of the villa is the huge fuse box in the upper story of the tower. This fuse box raises the suspicion, that there was equipment in the tower that needed a lot of electricity.

Another persistent rumour tells about the possibility, that the Villa Winter was used as a clinic, where Nazi criminals underwent plastic surgery to change their appearance so they could start a new life in South America. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen that these ´guests´ were brought up to the coast of Jandia in submarines. But they also might have arrived by plane, because during the last phase of the war, several planes were landing and taking off every night.

Since the nineties the villa has been owned by a Spanish building company. Since that time a warden has lived in the villa, and tourists have been able to a look inside when they pay a small tip. In future the villa will probably be transformed into a hotel or restaurant. Andreas Winter, a distant relative of Gustav Winter, made the attempt to turn the villa into a wellness centre but the Spanish bureaucracy stopped his plans. But no matter how the villa will be used in the future, the myths and legends will always accompany her.

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