Naval Command

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Military architecture · Year: 1945 · Authors: José Enrique Marrero Regalado

In 1802, the Registration Ordinances entrusted the naval war corps with the command and governance of the port area. The first building constructed for this purpose, called the Port Captaincy, was ordered to be built in 1864 and was located in the midst of the port under construction. After the restructuring of this port area in the early decades of the 20th century, the old Port Captaincy facility was demolished, along with many of the buildings crowded on the narrow edge of the dock and its surroundings.

The new building of the now-called Naval Command, located at the junction of La Rambla with Anaga Avenue, was designed in 1939 by the architect José Enrique Marrero Regalado with clearly rationalist criteria. The design was influenced by the relationship between naval architecture and the nautical reference of its use. The façade is resolved by means of a projection of terraces resembling boarding gangways and, symmetrically, two circular towers traversed by metal railings. The only allusion to the representative character of the building is the interruption of the terraces by a wall that once housed a Francoist shield and which today remains hidden beneath another of constitutional character. The building was inaugurated in 1945 and has subsequently undergone significant renovations that have altered its original proportions.

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