Casa Gabarda

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1903 · Authors: Federico Solé y Escabia, Antonio Pintor y Ocete

This building is located at the corner of Jesús y María and La Rambla streets, in the Barrio de los Hoteles. Its year of construction and author are not known for certain, although its typology suggests it may be a work started by the architect Antonio Pintor and completed, with his very particular imprint, by the technician Federico Solé. There is evidence that the house was already finished in 1903. 

We are faced with a small palace of two floors and a tower built under the guidelines of an overloaded eclectic style. Its irregular plan suggests that at the time of its construction the surrounding road layouts were not yet clear. The most interesting aspect of the building is its symmetrical façades where we observe pairs of openings with coloured alfiz. We highlight the chamfer, with its parapets and its balcony enclosed by an excellent cast iron and glass viewpoint, so characteristic of the architect Pintor. Crowning everything, we find a tower with a rich decorative repertoire much to the taste of the technician Federico Solé. 

The house belonged to Colonel Doctor Luis Gabarda Sitjar, a person who served as a liaison on 16 July 1936 between the Englishman named Pollard and Franco, then commander general of the Canaries, to enable his transfer to Africa from Gando in Gran Canaria on the Dragon Rapide plane, in order to take command of the military uprising that would lead to the Spanish Civil War.

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