Garachico, the port buried by lava: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
The port destroyed by the 1706 eruption
In May 1706 the Trevejo volcano poured lava onto Garachico and buried its port, the most important on Tenerife. The walk follows what the lava swept away, stopped at or missed, from the church and convents of the old town down to the shore.
The stops
Garachico's tourism page calls this the Puerta de Tierra, a remnant of the important port that began in the 16th century and went under in the catastrophe of 1706. Every person and every cargo entering or leaving Garachico had to pass through it. It stands in a leafy park of exotic plants on Plaza Juan González de la Torre, where you can also see the old winepress of the San Juan Degollado estate.
Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 Cristóbal de Ponte, the founder of Garachico, ceded the plot for this church in 1520, and it was dedicated to Saint Anne after his wife, Ana de Vergara. In 1706 the lava stopped at the foot of the church, but it came close enough that the heat burned part of the building, which was rebuilt between 1714 and 1721. Inside is an image of Christ of Mercy from Mexico, made using the marrow of corn.
Photo: Chmee2 — CC BY-SA 3.0 Work on this stone house began around 1666, by the Gran Canaria stonemasons Antonio Pérez and Luis Báez Marichal. It belonged to Juan Bautista de Ponte y Fonte and later passed to the Counts of La Gomera through marriage alliances. The 1706 volcano damaged it seriously, though the town's tourism page says the later rebuilding appears to follow the original plan, and after years closed it has been fully restored and now holds much of the municipal cultural activity.
Photo: trolvag — CC BY-SA 3.0 The complex began in 1524, when Cristóbal de Ponte gave land to the Franciscan order beside his own chapel of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, which later became the convent chapel. The 1706 eruption swept through the convents of Saint Francis and Saint Clare. Closed in the 19th century in the time of the minister Mendizábal, the convent is now the Casa de la Cultura, home to the public library and the municipal archive, and the town's tourism page lists permanent displays on the Canary volcanoes and on old photographs of Garachico.
Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 The nuns of this cloistered monastery, founded in 1643 by Cristóbal de Ponte y Hoyo, left in the face of the danger in 1706 and came back two years later. The eruption destroyed the old port but did not damage the building. A fire in 1709 left it completely ruined and it was rebuilt between 1745 and 1749, and its main altarpiece originally stood in the church of Santa Ana.
Photo: Wolfgang Sauber — CC BY-SA 3.0 The town's tourism page says this pier was built after the 1706 eruption and keeps its original cobbled paving and plenty of basalt masonry. From the port, which was improved under Philip II, ships once sailed with sugar and the famed malvasía wine for the New World, Britain, Flanders and Angola. The lava of 1706 came down the steep cliffs and buried the lovely bay for good, leaving the small roadstead seen today, and at the end of the breakwater the sculpture Tensei Tenmoku frames a view of the Roque.
Photo: -wuppertaler — CC BY 4.0 A first bulwark stood here by 1552, and in 1575 a royal decree of Philip II authorised a larger, better-armed fortress to protect the busiest trading town on Tenerife. The corregidor Fabián Viña Negrón paid for part of the work and in return received the post of commander for life, with the right to pass it to his heirs. When the 1706 lava buried part of the town and the roadstead the castle guarded, the castle itself was unharmed but lost its defensive role, and today it is a heritage information centre.
Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 These natural pools came from the lava of the 1706 eruption: where it met the sea it solidified into whimsical, beautiful shapes. The lava that reached the sea also added land to the municipality, and the castle beside the pools has a fighting platform from which the lava landscape of El Caletón can be seen. The town's tourism page names some of the pools, Las Viejas, Los Niños and Los Chorros, and says they offer acceptable conditions for bathing.
Photo: Xavigivax — CC BY-SA 3.0
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