El Fielato

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1900

On the main road towards La Laguna, in the Villa Benítez area, stands this small building with a gabled roof which has been, since 1973, the headquarters of the Centro de Iniciativas Turísticas de Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Tourism Initiatives Centre of Santa Cruz de Tenerife). It was built in 1900, as indicated by an inscription on its façade, as a storage for tram materials, which at that time was under construction. Later, in the 1920s, it began to serve the functions of a fielato.

The fielato was the name given to municipal offices established from the mid-19th century throughout Spain at the entrances to major population centres. Their function was to collect taxes on certain consumer goods. The term comes from the fiel or scale used to weigh products and thus apply the corresponding tax. In this way, levies were collected on wine, spirits, oil, milk, meat, fish, etc. It was an activity of great importance for town councils, as depending on the locality, it could represent between 50 and 70% of total municipal income. In each of these offices, the zealous local customs officers stopped all people intending to enter the town, in order to inspect whether they carried any goods liable to tax. It did not matter whether they were on foot, riding, in a cart, car, bus or even tram: everyone had to stop before the fiscal authority. Apart from its revenue function, the fielatos were also known as "health stations", as they served to exercise some control over the food entering the cities. 

We can imagine the cunning and smuggling that existed throughout the period of this tax collection practice. The fielato disappeared in the early 1960s. From that moment the building was for some time the headquarters of the Real Automóvil Club. After being remodelled and restored in 1973, it became home to the Centro de Iniciativas Turísticas de Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

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