Barranco de Santos

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Archaeological sites

The Barranco de Santos, along with Taganana, the Barranco de San Andrés and the southwest sector of the municipality, was the area with the highest concentration of aboriginal population in Santa Cruz. Its long course, narrow walls in several sections along its route, and its abundance of water throughout almost the entire year were sufficient reasons for pre-Hispanic population groups to settle there.

It has always been configured as a topographical feature of great importance for the inhabitants who have lived in it or on its banks over the centuries. It originates in the municipality of La Laguna, in Jardina, very close to the Las Mercedes nucleus, and functioned for quite some time as the natural drainage of the ancient lagoon that once existed there. A little further down, at Gracia, it is joined by the Barranco de Barrio Nuevo and almost immediately receives on the right the flow of the Barranco del Gomero and on the left that of Colín, which collects the waters from the slopes of San Roque and La Gallardina. The Barranco de Santos crosses the La Laguna neighbourhoods of Finca España and La Higuerita, receiving the Barranco de Tabares at the foot of Montaña de Guerra, which it then skirts in a deep cut. When it is already descending and almost leaves the foothills of this mountain, the Barranco de Santos enters the municipality of Santa Cruz at the height of the La Salud Alto neighbourhood. From there it slides towards the sea in an interrupted fall of narrow walls with some impressive waterfalls, until it reaches its final stretch where it slows and integrates into the urban landscape.

The important role it has always played as a collector and natural outlet for rainwater from a wide region explains the secular interest in settling in or near it. The presence of aboriginal human groups along its course is well known, from its mouth to Montaña de Guerra. On all banks there are habitation caves that have been used from ancient times until very recently. There are also numerous burial caves located in the highest part, with information about two important necropolises within the municipal area of the capital: one at El Becerril, on the right bank of the ravine; another on the left, at the height of the current La Salud Alto neighbourhood.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the island's capital, was born as a city beside the mouth of this impressive ravine, on a site already occupied by ancient inhabitants. With the arrival of the new settlers, the ravine was named Barranco de Santos, after the neighbour Diego Santos who had a house and shipyards at the mouth of its course.

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