Main Guardhouse

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1874

This military installation annexed to the old Castillo de San Cristóbal served as accommodation for the guard of the city's main fortress, as well as for the sergeant major of the plaza, the fortifications officer, the cavalry section, the military secretary, and also functioned as a store for the engineers' command and housed other uses.

It was built in 1874 on what had been the moat of the old Santo Domingo battery, very close to the entrance to the dock, where at one time a huge access gate had been installed.

The guardhouse, which replaced an earlier one built at the beginning of the 18th century by the engineer Miguel Tiburcio Rossel, was a small building occupying barely 367 square metres, almost imperceptible next to the Castillo de San Cristóbal.

Its location in the middle of the entrance to the city from the port quickly made it a clear obstacle to port traffic, so it was demolished in 1928, along with the main castle to which it was attached, to make way for a large esplanade ready to be urbanised by the City Council.

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