Santa Cruz de Tenerife (; locally ), commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz, is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and one of the capitals of the Canary Islands, along with Las Palmas. Santa Cruz has a population of 211,436 (2024) within its administrative limits.Instituto Canario de Estadística , population The urban zone of Santa Cruz extends beyond the city limits with a population of 507,306 and 538,000 within urban area. It is the second largest city in the Canary Islands and the main city on the island of Tenerife, with nearly half of the island's population living in or around it.
Santa Cruz is located in the northeast quadrant of Tenerife, off the north-western coast of Africa within the Atlantic Ocean. The distance to the nearest point of mainland Spain is . Between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands, until 1927 when the archipelago was split into the current two provinces.Real Decreto de 30 de noviembre de 1833 on wikisourceReal Decreto de 30 de noviembre de 1833 at the official website of the Canary Islands Government The port is of great importance and is the communications hub between Europe, Africa and Americas, with cruise ships arriving from many nations. The city is the focus for domestic and inter-island communications in the Canary Islands.
The city is home to the Parliament of the Canary Islands, the Audience of Accounts of the Canary Islands, the Captaincy General of the Canary Islands,Historial de la Capitanía General de Canarias Fuente: Ministerio de Defensa, Gobierno de España. the Canarias Ministry of the Presidency (shared on a four-year cycle with Las Palmas), one half of the Ministries and Boards of the Canarias Government, (the other half being located in Gran Canaria), the Tenerife Provincial Courts and two courts of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands. There are several faculties of the La Laguna University in Santa Cruz, including the Fine Arts School and the Naval Sciences Faculty. Its harbour is one of Spain's busiest. It is important for commercial and passenger traffic as well as for being a major stopover for cruisers en route from Europe to the Caribbean. The city also has one of the world's largest carnivals. The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife now aspires to become a World Heritage Site, and is the second largest in the world.
The varied architecture of the city stands out, highlighting the Auditorio de Tenerife (Auditorium of Tenerife), which is considered one of the greatest exponents of contemporary architecture or the Masonic Temple, in neo-Egyptian style, a unique building in the country. In the panoramic view of the city, the Torres de Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz Towers) also stand out, with the tallest twin towers in Spain at high. Other outstanding places are the Plaza de España (Spain Square), which is the nerve center of the city, and the Parque García Sanabria (García Sanabria Park), a large urban park located at the center of the city. Outside the city but in its municipal district, Playa de Las Teresitas (Las Teresitas) and a large part of the Macizo de Anaga (Anaga Massif) stand out, declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2015. Santa Cruz de Tenerife hosts the first headquarters of the Center UNESCO in the Canary Islands. In recent years the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has seen the construction of a significant number of modern structures and the city's skyline is the sixth in height across the country, behind Madrid, Benidorm, Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao.
In 2012, the British newspaper The Guardian included Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the list of the five best places in the world to live, next to the Cihangir district, in Istanbul; the district of Sankt Pauli, in Hamburg, the north coast of Maui, in Hawaii and Portland, in Oregon. The 82% of the municipal territory of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is considered a natural area, this is due in large part to the presence of the Anaga Rural Park. This fact makes Santa Cruz the third largest municipality in Spain with the highest percentage of natural territory, after Cuenca (87%) and Cáceres (83%).Anaga convierte a Santa Cruz en la tercera gran ciudad de España con más suelo natural
Etymology The area where Santa Cruz currently lies belonged to Menceyato Guanche Anaga, which was the most easterly of the island. The city that is now Santa Cruz had a few names throughout its history: Añazo or Añaza (Guanche name), Puerto de Santiago Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Santiago de Tenerife, and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (current), which means: "holy cross of Tenerife," in memory of the foundation of the city, when a Christian cross was planted in the place that is now the center of town.
History
Guanche period, conquest and Castilian colonization The area on which now stands the city and the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has been the subject of human occupation since the time of the Guanches, approximately 2000 years ago, as attested by the archaeological sites found. The area was known to the Guanches, the first inhabitants of the island, as Añazo or Añaza. The famous Mummy of San Andrés is one of the most important archaeological remains of the aboriginal past of the region. Besides caves with some remains of mummified animals and stones with engravings ruprestres. This area belonged to the Menceyato de Anaga (aboriginal Guanche kingdom of Anaga), one of nine in which the island was divided.
On 3 May 1494 Castilian troops under the control of the conqueror Alonso Fernández de Lugo disembarked on the beaches of the present city and founded a military camp that would eventually develop into the city. From this place began the conquest of the island of Tenerife. During the foundation, Alonso Fernández de Lugo placed a large wooden cross in reference to the day of disembarkation, during the Catholic festivity of the Invention of the Cross (3 May). After the conquest and defeat of the Guanche aborigines, the capital of the island was initially established in the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, which was founded in the same year of the conquest of the island in 1496.
Old Regime and Modern Stage
Later, it became one of the most important ports of the Atlantic, a status it retains to this day. This former fishermen's village rose to prominence after a Volcano destroyed the port of Garachico in the 18th century.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife was, especially during the first half of the 18th century, the most important corsair center in the Macaronesian region."Santa Cruz de Tenerife fue la capital corsaria de la Macaronesia la primera mitad del siglo XVIII" El Escobillón, 06/08/2018 The recent discovery of abundant documentary evidence of significant corsair activity, carried out primarily by natives, residents, and those living on the island, confirms this fact. At the same time, the numerous pirate ships that frequented the Canary Islands waters used landing places along its coast. Such was the case of Valle de Salazar or San Andrés, which had acquired a reputation as a "pirate port" until the construction of its castle or defensive tower.Piratas en Santa Cruz de Tenerife El Blog Feroz, 15/04/2013
Due to the strategic location of Tenerife on the route between the Mediterranean and the Americas, it was attacked a number of times by the English and the Dutch. In particular, Santa Cruz Bay was the scene of two notable naval engagements involving two of the most famous British admirals. In 1656, an English squadron under Admiral Robert Blake defeated a Spanish silver fleet of 16 ships for the loss of none of his own, despite being under fire from shore batteries and attacking and withdrawing on the tide.
50 years later, a British squadron under John Jennings mounted an unsuccessful attack the island on 6 November 1706 during the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1797 Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson launched an unsuccessful attempt to storm the harbour. It was at this battle that Nelson lost his right arm having been hit before he had stepped off the ship's boat. It was on Santiago's day and that is the reason for having Santiago's sword cutting the lion's head as a symbol of the Spanish victory. Santa Cruz eventually became the major port on the Island. It first won its independence from La Laguna and, in the 19th century, was awarded the status of Capital of the Province of Canary Islands by King Ferdinand VII.
Between 1833 and 1927 Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 a Royal decree ordered that the status of capital city of the Canary Islands would be shared with Las Palmas in Gran Canaria. This arrangement remains in place today.
In 1893 an outbreak of cholera-morbid spread throughout the city and neighboring municipalities. The disease was brought by an Italian ship returning from Brazil. There were 382 dead.Santa Cruz, Muy Benéfica. El cólera de 1893
Between 1936 and 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, the Canary Islands were in the rear of General Francisco Franco's side. In this context, in 1936 the republican mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Carlos Schwartz Hernández, was arrested and murdered. After the war, years of great economic difficulties followed.
From 1978, with the new Spanish Constitution and the Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands, a new stage began, always with democratically elected mayors.
In the 80s and 90s of the 20th century, the city experiences a great economic boom. The expansion of the city towards the south begins gaining ground to the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Refinery and creating new residential and urbanizable areas such as Cabo-Llanos. Since then, this area of the city is immersed in a major construction boom that has been nicknamed "Manhattanization",La utópica "manhattanización" de Cabo-Llanos en Santa Cruz de Tenerife para el siglo XXI due to the presence of tall buildings and the layout of the streets that mimics that of American cities.
Current era: 21st century Santa Cruz inaugurated the 21st century with a great expansionary and commercial boom that is especially manifested in architecture with the construction of emblematic buildings such as the Auditorio de Tenerife, the work of Santiago Calatrava or the remodeling of the Plaza de España according to the design of Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.
A torrential flood took place on 31 March 2002. This was caused by a phenomenon of cold drop characterized by the repeated fall of torrential rain accompanied by lightning, which affected the metropolitan area of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The flooding caused 8 dead, 12 missing and dozens injured.Ya son OCHO los muertos. El Día. 09/04/2011.
In recent years, it has become clear that there exists a de facto union with neighbouring city San Cristóbal de La Laguna (141,627 inhabitants as in 2005 census) due to the rapid population growth and reduction in undeveloped space between the cities, as their suburbs merged, forming a metropolitan area with 420,198 inhabitants (including the nearby municipalities of Tegueste, Candelaria and El Rosario). Regarding this situation, the mayor of Santa Cruz, Miguel Zerolo Aguilar and his La Laguna counterpart, Ana María Oramas Moro, both belonging to the Canarian Coalition, stated several times to local media that they shared a willingness to proceed to a full political union between their municipalities, even though the decision was postponed to a date after the local elections in 2007. As of 2012 the merger is no longer part of the political agenda.
The 2008 financial crisis paralyzed the development of the city for more than a decade.
In June 2018, the dismantling of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Refinery was announced, which will allow the expansion of the city to the south.La Refinería se va y deja un nuevo dibujo de Santa Cruz
Climate