Duggi Neighbourhood

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Squares, streets & markets · Year: 1869

The Duggi neighbourhood is one of the most distinctive population entities of all those that make up the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Located in the very city centre, it is almost configured as a perfect quadrilateral whose boundaries are: to the north, Rambla de Pulido; to the east, Calle Galcerán; to the west, Avenida de La Asunción; and to the south, Barranco de Santos. Its development extends over what was a steep terrain with great slopes, especially in its upper part, which is why it was and still is popularly known as "El Monturrio".

The origins of the neighbourhood date back to 1869 when Luis Duggi, an entrepreneur of Italian descent whose family had settled in Santa Cruz in the mid-18th century, built some modest houses on land he owned, which consisted of farms and orchards located on the edge of the street then known as Maestranza (now Galcerán). In 1872 this owner, who gave his name to the entire neighbourhood, sold the rest of the estate located on the left side of the La Laguna road (now Rambla de Pulido) to the Sociedad Constructora, which immediately began to urbanise it, opening streets in a grid and building more than thirty houses. Two years later, in 1874, a new urbanisation plan was presented, even more ambitious than the previous one, carried out in the following decades. During that period, new streets 8 metres wide were opened and named after illustrious Canarian figures such as Iriarte, Cairasco, Benavides, Serrano, and Porlier.

The neighbourhood was practically completed in its first phase at the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to a new impetus driven by the construction company "El Progreso", which, under schemes similar to those successfully tried a few years earlier in El Toscal, was responsible for building decent and quality housing aimed at the more modest sector of society. Almost simultaneously, in the upper area of the neighbourhood, between Calle de Castro and Avenida de la Asunción, the entrepreneur Juan Sitjá built fifty new houses that closed the neighbourhood at its upper part.

Throughout the 20th century, the area was gradually urbanised in successive stages, occupying the former estate called "Don Bruno", bordering Barranco de Santos, and empty spaces in the upper part, such as the plot located on a large escarpment where the public school and Plaza de San Fernando were built.  

Today, the Duggi neighbourhood, mostly occupied by an active middle class, barely preserves some examples of its origins. Currently, the area enjoys a rich civic life as can be seen in its lively public squares (Duggi and Pedro Schwartz or Plaza Militar), around its historic school, in its charming children's park, its sports court, its parish of María Auxiliadora, and other varied urban spaces.

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