Municipal Archive

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Cultural spaces · Subcategory: Libraries and archives · Year: 1904

The Municipal Archive of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is located in the main headquarters of the City Council, on Viera y Clavijo street. Its function is twofold: on one hand, it facilitates the operation of the Corporation's offices; on the other, it promotes knowledge of the municipality's history.

Its facilities hold more than 3,000 linear metres of documentation generated since the early 17th century, although the first document related to the Place is a mandate from the Royal Audience, dated 26 October 1748, prohibiting the slaughter of cattle in private homes.

The papers generated by the Corporation were initially kept in the private homes of those who served as mayor. It was in 1813 when the City Council had an official headquarters after renting a house on San Francisco street, corner of Castillo street, facing Plaza de la Pila, a house where Leopoldo O’Donnell had been born four years earlier, and which was then owned by Pedro de Franchi. There, official documents of meetings, agreements and other paperwork generated by the administration began to be archived. And thus, ... Not having this City Council an Archive to safeguard the papers with the security and cleanliness appropriate for their perpetuity, in 1819 the carpenter Francisco Álvarez and the painter Manuel Filpes were commissioned to make a piece of furniture that cost more than 45 pesos and would serve as a filing cabinet. 

In 1822 the Corporation's premises, probably along with the newly made filing cabinet, were moved to the recently disentailled Franciscan convent of San Pedro de Alcántara. There, in 1875, it was agreed to appoint an interim archivist. Seven years later, Elías Zerolo became the first archivist-librarian with a salary of one thousand pesetas. In 1884, the permanent archivist position was occupied by Matías Guigou del Castillo.

In 1904 the Municipal Archive was definitively established in its current headquarters on Viera y Clavijo street. It currently occupies the semi-basement of the East wing of the Municipal Palace, where its valuable documentary heritage is preserved and made available to citizens, showing how the city has been forged over the years.

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