Cueva Roja

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Historic sites

This interesting natural spot is located in the upper area of the municipality, on a steep basalt escarpment, at the highest point of the populated area it names, also known as Barrio Nuevo. From here, magnificent views of the city can be seen. The cave, excavated in the rock, is the result of the extraction of volcanic tuff material used for decades in the construction of houses and various buildings.

Cueva Roja has two remarkable historical aspects worth highlighting. The first is that the so-called “Camino de las Lecheras” (Milkmaids' Path) passes through here, a trail along which women from La Laguna and surrounding areas would descend with their milk jugs to sell at the market or in private homes in the capital.

The second aspect is that this place was the site of a clandestine meeting on the afternoon-evening of 18 July 1936, of a significant group of left-wing militants who came here with the clear intention of forcibly stopping the rebels against the Second Republic. Given the scarce available weaponry (few pistols and some dynamite cartridges) and the lack of a concrete plan, those gathered, apparently about fifty people linked to anarchist unions, decided to wait and put part of the armament in safe keeping. 

Once all resistance was crushed by the rebel military forces of the Nationalist side and the Francoist support forces, nineteen attendees of that meeting were executed by firing squad on 23 January 1937 at the Barranco del Hierro battery in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, accused of “adhesion to rebellion”. 

On 4 October 2008, 72 years later, a small plaque was unveiled at the entrance of the cave itself in remembrance of those repressed.

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