Fides Building

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1891 · Authors: Manuel de Cámara

This building, together with another located on the next corner after crossing General Antequera street, was the first construction built by S.E.R.U (Society of Buildings and Urban Reforms), a company responsible for carrying out much of the expansion of the Hotels neighbourhood. In 1888, these two plots were chosen to erect the first buildings of the new and exclusive development.

For the upper plot, the architect Manuel de Cámara developed, at the beginning of the following year, a construction design that was a milestone for the typologies and urban languages of the city at that time.

The building, completed in 1891, stands surrounded by a small enclosed garden. Cámara eliminated the stonework used until then that commonly adorned the openings and introduced the use of cement and plaster. The ornamentation that runs along the façade provides an innovative dynamism. As for the interior, the floor plan maintains the traditional courtyard scheme, covered in this case, with spacious rooms around it, featuring a staircase in the central space which was a novelty at the time.

Conceived in the form of a villa or hotel intended to accommodate the upper class of Santa Cruz society, the Fides building became the prototype construction to be carried out for the new Hotels neighbourhood.

It was first a residence, then a hotel, later an educational centre ("Escuela Fides", a name it has retained) and subsequently housed the offices of the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands. Since 1999 it has been owned by the City Council.

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