Southwest District

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Squares, streets & markets · Year: 1972

At the end of 1972 the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife saw its territorial area increase by nearly 15 square kilometres following a historic agreement with the municipality of El Rosario, whereby the latter town ceded more than a third of its territory to the island’s capital. The vast area acquired became what is today known as the Southwest District (districts 11 and 12) of the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. 

This momentous annexation was fundamental for Santa Cruz to expand in its growth as a large city. The capital saw its future constrained during those decades of development in the second half of the 20th century by the impossibility of expansion, being enclosed by the Anaga mountains to the north, by the city of La Laguna to the west and by the ocean to the east. Only to the south was it possible for the city to grow, and those lands belonged to the neighbouring municipality of El Rosario, so an agreement had to be reached. 

The first contacts to carry out the historic cession took place in the mid-1960s, when the Santa Cruz corporation, presided over by Mayor Pedro Doblado, established talks with the El Rosario mayoralty. The file began to be processed in 1968. After an intense preparatory period and with the endorsement of both municipal corporations, the agreement was approved by the Ministry of the Interior on 13 August 1971. The definitive act of territorial cession was formalised on 30 December 1972 in La Asomadilla, the new boundary point between both municipalities, through the signatures of the Mayor of El Rosario Elías Bacallado and that of Santa Cruz at that time Ernesto Rumeu de Armas.

Santa Cruz came out clearly ahead. Within the new area acquired by the capital were spaces with a strong agrarian and rural character such as: El Sobradillo, Tíncer, Llano del Moro, El Chorrillo, El Tablero and Barranco Grande; others with a clear suburban character: Santa María del Mar. The rest of the space would be occupied over the years by both industrial estates and residential groups of such importance today for the city as: Añaza, Acorán, Alisios and La Gallega.

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