Santa Cruz de La Palma: the Renaissance port of the island of La Palma: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
The Renaissance port of La Palma
Santa Cruz grew rich as a port on the road to America, and the walk keeps coming back to the sea: the ship and the castle that play out the Bajada, the fort raised after a pirate raid, the Renaissance square and town hall where councillors were first elected by vote, and the sailors' own chapel.
The stops
This fort was built to stage a play. The Diálogo entre el castillo y la nave is a traditional number of the Bajada de la Virgen, the festival held every five years, and the castle began as a simple painted wooden stage set made for the occasion. In 1820 the merchant José Gabriel Martín paid for the rampart and the storehouse and gave it 21 small iron cannons for the battle with the ship, and the island's tourist board says the restored cannons still sound every five years during the Bajada.
Photo: Marc Ryckaert — CC BY 3.0 This ship is a reproduction of the Santa María, the vessel in which Columbus reached America in 1492. It was built for the Bajada de la Virgen of 1940 on the initiative of Armando Yanes Carrillo and other islanders, using data from the Naval Museum in Seville and the technique of La Palma's last sailing-ship builder, and it honours the islanders who took ships made from island timber across every sea. When the Virgin's procession reaches the ship, the Diálogo entre el castillo y la nave is staged, a work by the poet Antonio Rodríguez first performed in 1875 and played without a break since 1885.
Photo: Ingo Mehling — CC BY-SA 4.0 French pirates attacked Santa Cruz on 21 July 1553, and the town went on to build fortifications, among them a first Santa Catalina castle in the 1550s. The castle standing today replaced it in the late 17th century, a square fort with a pointed bastion at each corner in the style of 16th-century Italian military Renaissance, with the arms of the Catholic Monarchs over its gate. It served as a garrison and prison.
Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 This Renaissance church belonged to the Franciscan Real Convento de la Inmaculada Concepción, founded once the conquest of the island was complete. Its chapel of the Señor de la Piedra Fría, built in 1565, has an octagonal dome with a Mudéjar wooden ceiling, and the image it holds is the most venerated in the city. The old convent now houses the Museo Insular, whose sections cover archaeology, ethnology, natural science and seafaring.
Photo: H. Zell — CC BY-SA 3.0 The Teatro Chico was once a chapel. It began as the oratory of the old Hospital de Dolores y Concepción, founded around 1514, and was left abandoned when the hospital moved in 1837. On 28 April 1866 the town council let a group of residents use it as a hall for shows and festivities, and the conversion set out to hide its sacred character completely, though underneath it is still a one-nave Mudéjar church of the Canarian type.
Photo: Wesisnay — CC BY-SA 3.0 The mother church of Santa Cruz and of the whole island was founded around 1500 and reached its three-nave plan through several rebuildings; its south front is cut from La Gomera stone and topped by a marble image of the Saviour. Every five years the church receives the image of the Virgen de las Nieves for about a month during the Bajada. In front of its steps stands the bronze statue of Father Manuel Díaz, the priest, painter and musician known as the cura Díaz, who died after a fall on the church stairs in 1863; put up in the 1890s, it was the first civil monument erected in the Canary Islands.
Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 Work on the town hall began in 1553 on common land, and an inscription on its façade says it was finished in 1563. The city's heritage page calls it, with the church and the fountain, the main Renaissance complex in the Canaries, and its stone came from La Gomera. Its councillors were first chosen by vote in 1773, after, the city says, the merchant of Irish origin Dionisio O'Daly and Anselmo Pérez de Brito won their case against the town's perpetual councillors, which is why Santa Cruz calls this the first popularly elected town hall in Spain; the Calle O'Daly, part of the Calle Real that leads away from this square, is named after him.
Photo: Marc Ryckaert — CC BY-SA 4.0 The Casa Principal de Salazar stands on the Calle Real, the name locals give to the Calle O'Daly and the Calle Anselmo Pérez de Brito since King Alfonso XIII's visit in 1906. It was built in the first half of the 17th century as a fine example of noble architecture, and it is known for its four floors of balconies and a handsome central patio. The city's heritage page says it has been restored and is used for cultural events and regular exhibitions.
Photo: H. Zell — CC BY-SA 3.0 The Teatro Circo de Marte began as a building meant mainly for cockfights, and it kept the name Circo from that origin. To make it a theatre, a new perimeter wall was built around the old circus, which was folded inside: the circus space became the audience hall and a ring of rooms around it holds the services. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural in 1997.
Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 Dominican friars founded a convent here in 1530 on land given by the conqueror Alonso Fernández de Lugo, on a prominent site near El Salvador with a view over the city and the port. The island's tourist boards say the Church of Santo Domingo holds one of the great artistic treasures of the Canaries in painting, altarpieces and sculpture, including an important collection of Flemish painting. The grounds of the old convent have housed the oldest secondary school on La Palma since 1961.
Photo: Frank Vincentz — CC BY-SA 3.0 San Telmo is the patron saint of seafarers, and his hermitage, built before 1550, gave its name to the quarter on the edge of the city. The present building dates from 1675 to 1680, when the seamen's brotherhood rebuilt it from the earnings of their voyages and donations taken from fishing boats; its broad balcony works like a watchtower above the port. Inside are a Baroque altarpiece and a processional ship, the Galeón de San Telmo, a copy of a late 17th-century Spanish galleon.
Photo: Frank Vincentz — CC BY-SA 3.0
Hear the full story as you walk, or create your own walk, in the Alleytale app.