Peregrina Street by Alzola

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Historic sites

Although it often goes unnoticed, calle Peregrina is a discreet link between the neighbourhood of Triana and the town centre of Vegueta, and hides centuries of history behind its façades. Its last well known resident, historian José Miguel Alzola, traced a carefully detailed geneology of this urban short cut, in his work called Biografía de una calle: La Peregrina. «We don't take enough notice of the surroundings as we walk by», he reflects. 

When the street came about at the end of the 15th century, with the formation of Guiniguada and the urban sprawl of Triana, light carriages moved parsimoniously around its cobbled streets. Today, however, it is a pedestrian street joining calle Remedios, opening out onto the Plaza de Las Ranas, getting its name from an 18th century hermitage, along with calle Malteses, as a tribute to Maltese traders who set up shops along the street. With a slight bend half way along, called Peregrina cannot be said to long or wide, but it can boast old age and beauty. The physionomy of its 18 façades, nine on each side, has been altered over the centuries and yet has survived unscathed, while in its interior a plethora of traders, clergymen, lawyers, artists and conspirators have rubbed shoulders over the years.

Behind door number 7 is an unoccupied mansion. In the 16th century it used to be a long alleyway that opened out onto a wide block, where the treasured orchards of all the neighbouring streets stood, namely Remedios, Doctor Domingo Déniz, Malteses and Peregrina. A century later, a stately home was built on it, and among the many tenants to live there was the great soprano Pepita Miñón, who, following her return from Havanna to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1962, did some memorable performances alongside Alfredo Kraus. Previously in 1864, the celebrated poet Domingo Rivero moved in at the end of the street at number 17. He was the author of the stunning book of poems Yo a mi cuerpo. At the end of the 18th century, number 1 at calle Peregrina, which backs onto calle Remedios, was the Hotel Europa, run by Ramón López and his wife Dolores Álvarez, for whose love he first travelled from Cuba having fallen for her at the tender age of 14.

As for the compiler of calle Peregrina's comings and goings, José Miguel Alzola himself lived at number 15 for over 60 years, situated next to the present day legendary Las Rosas bar cafeteria. The Alzola family acquired the property at the end of the 18th century, which at the time belonged to the convent of the Bernardas order. [...]

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the purchase of properties along La Peregrina opened up some suggestive perspectives, as the city's most prestigious shops were set up along there. One of its most outstanding buildings stands at number 4. It is an eighteenth century building on three floors with stone ashlars, whose façade has remained unaltered by later refurbishments, although it initially only occupied the ground floor. In it, a market was set up by a couple of traders, Juan Casares and Josefa de Castro, who filled the shelves with sugar, honey and rapaduras, milk and syrup sweets from a dozen traders from La Palma, who would sell their wares around the streets of Peregrina and Malteses brought in from the neighbouring island. [...]

[...] the age old building at number 9 is decorated with wooden galleries, and its façade was restored in 1929 by architect Rafael Masanet. Today it is the only building along La Peregrina that has a coat of arms on its façade, that Néstor Álamo placed there in 1980. Sculptor Juan Márquez was born there in 1903, who familiarized himself with chisels and gouges in his early childhood. Having studied at the Luján Pérez School and worked at París with a grant from the capital city's Town Hall, he became one of the finest sculptors and furniture designers on his return. He was responsible for building the furniture for the city's most important institutional buildings. [...]

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