Salamanca Water Reservoir

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Industrial architecture · Year: 1899 · Authors: Antonio Pintor y Ocete

Located on the high grounds of what was then the extensive Salamanca estate, on the edge of the road leading to the asylum, this was the first reservoir built in 1899 to store water coming from the springs of the Anaga peaks and from here supply the public fountains and spouts of Santa Cruz. 

For this purpose, the municipal architect Antonio Pintor began constructing an aqueduct that would connect with the springs of Roque Negro and Catalanes through a tunnel where he would insert a channel capable of transporting 8,000 pipes daily (1 pipe = 480 litres). These works had to be halted in 1902 due to lack of funding, resuming eight years later. In 1913, the works were suspended again due to a landslide inside the tunnel, in which five workers died. Finally, in 1916, once the works were completed, from this Salamanca reservoir the first pressurised water supply distribution network for the population of Santa Cruz would depart.  

The Salamanca water reservoir covers an area of 1,107 square metres and has an interior height of 8.25 metres. The exterior, simple and austere in appearance, has the shape of a truncated pyramid with perimeter walls of basaltic stone and masonry of hydraulic lime concrete. The entire structure is coated with a layer of picón that regulates the surface and insulates the water from high temperatures. But the greatest architectural interest is found inside, where pillars, arches and vaults are arranged in the classic manner of Arab cisterns, with red edge vaults resting on semicircular stone arches.

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