Fuencaliente de La Palma, also Fuencaliente (Spanish meaning "hot spring"), is a municipality in the southern part of the island La Palma in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife of the Canary Islands, Spain. The seat of the municipality is the village Los Canarios. It has been the seat since 1837. The population of the municipality is 1,798 (2013)Instituto Canario de Estadística , population and the area is 56.42 km².
Geography
The municipality of Fuencaliente covers the southern tip of the island La Palma. The landscape is dominated by the volcanic ridge Cumbre Vieja. The southernmost volcano on this ridge, Teneguía, last erupted in 1971. The fertile soil is used for growing grapes (malvasia wine) and bananas. The yearly production of wine from its 800 ha of vineyards is 2 million litres. There are salt evaporation ponds near the lighthouse, on the southernmost point of the island. Fuencaliente is located 23 km southwest of the island capital Santa Cruz de la Palma.
Subdivisions Las Caletas (pop. in 2013: 161) Los Canarios (pop: 709) El Charco (pop: 30) La Fajana (pop: 35) Las Indias (pop: 620) Los Quemados (pop: 243)
History Before the arrival of the Spanish in the 15th century, the territory was occupied by the Guanches as Ahenguareme. The origin of the name Fuencaliente is a nearby spring known as Fuente Santa located near the coastline which is now known as Playa de Echentive and was separated by lava and eliminated the springs in the 18th century. In 1971, Teneguía created a volcanic eruption and caused some damages to most of the properties. It also added small hectares of land to the island. The Canarian Council of Public Works in collaboration with the municipality had made a sounding in an area where water under the ground is at 60 °C. The objective in the future is that a gallery will be built in the area to extract these waters and take advantage of them in a special pool.
Sites of interest Cumbre Vieja, an active volcanic ridge, part of a natural park Fuencaliente Lighthouse Salinas de Fuencaliente or Salinas Teneguía, salt evaporation ponds The volcano Teneguía (438 m)
Historical population Year Population 1900 1,650 1910 1,833 1920 1,841 1930 1,966 1940 2,212 1950 2,270 1960 1,943 1970 1,749 1980 1,664 1990 1,822 1991 1,731 1996 1,735 2001 1,833 2002 1,801 2003 1,857 2004 1,877 2005 1,913 2013 1,798
See also List of municipalities in Santa Cruz de Tenerife
References