José Miranda House

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1745? · Authors: Alonso García Ledesma

This building, now disappeared, was located in the upper part of Plaza de la Candelaria, bordering the Palacio de Carta and at the corner of San Francisco street.
It was built before 1750 as a private residence for Colonel Miranda by the master builder and stonemason Juan Alonso García de Ledesma, author among other buildings of the church of El Pilar in this city. 

The house was a magnificent three-storey construction in traditional Canarian style made of rubble masonry. The main façade faced the square and showed a formal symmetry in doors and windows. Above the excellent central blue stonework doorway rose a balcony enclosed with a parapet of elaborate wrought ironwork. The roof was topped by a four-sided tiled roof. Inside, as was customary, a splendid courtyard distributed the spaces.

At the ground floor of this house was, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Aspala Ice Cream Parlour, perhaps the first café-ice cream shop Santa Cruz had and one of the most distinguished leisure places of that time.

By 1871 the house was already owned by Tomás Ascanio, who commissioned the public works assistant Menandro de Cámara a major renovation that gave it its current appearance. Its original design, with a marked traditional character, disappeared then. The new building became the Hotel Victoria at the beginning of the 20th century and today, after having been completely transformed inside, houses the premises of large textile department stores.

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