La Jurada Quarry

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1903

From this quarry, for many years, the stone necessary for the construction of the Santa Cruz pier was extracted. The efforts made over time with the intention of providing the city with a pier of appropriate characteristics were continuous.

In 1847, at the suggestion of the Public Works assistant Francisco Maffiote, the first launches of stones shaped as artificial prisms into the sea were carried out for the construction of a breakwater. It was a true technological advance for the time. After the approval in 1864 of the plans for the new port, from then on, the entire dock was cemented by means of a large breakwater. It was imperative to locate a good quarry, preferably close to the worksite, to facilitate the transport of the numerous tons of stone that were to be thrown into the sea.

The first quarry in operation of which we have news was the one known as San Pedro, located near what is today the passenger terminal of the port, vertically aligned with the Isabel II fountain. It was a cliff that extended into the sea and on which the San Pedro castle was installed. The extraction of stone here was limited as it could only be worked on the eastern side of the rock formation, being the only side free of constructions.

In 1885 a new quarry began to be exploited, this time located on the Paso Alto mountain. After numerous blasts, the exploitation was satisfactory, with almost all extraction carried out on the western flank of the mountain, as it was the only side where work was possible. In 1894, complaints were expressed from the Ministry of War about the extraction of material in this place, as it was believed to endanger the direct communication that connected the Paso Alto fort with a "light entrenchment built at the time of the war against the English that was settled on the ridge of the Altura mountain".

Again, another place had to be sought for extraction, as the port was still under construction. This time the contractors La Roche, Lecuona y Cia bought, at the beginning of 1905 (although work had been underway for several years before), an estate in a place called "Ramonal", which would become the largest stone quarry for the construction of the pier that had been had until then. From that moment it was known as La Jurada quarry.

From there, by means of a locomotive, the material was transported to the worksite, or else it was loaded onto the nearby coal docks of Valleseco, for transport to the place of launch into the sea.

The La Jurada quarry remained operational well into the 20th century, when the stone needs for the pier were no longer what they used to be. Currently, its site houses facilities, tanks, and warehouses of fuel companies, but the enormous excavation suffered by the mountain after years of stone extraction can still be observed.

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