Igueste de San Andrés

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

Igueste de San Andrés is located in the lower area of the fertile ravine of the same name, situated about 16 kilometres north of the urban centre of Santa Cruz, on the southern slope of the Anaga massif. Its location, enclosed by steep slopes and large cliffs, kept the population centre almost completely isolated until well into the 20th century, when the road was opened; until then, its communication with the outside was carried out almost exclusively by sea.

The area was already inhabited since pre-Hispanic times, as evidenced by the fact that in 1518 the caves of Las Betas were still occupied by Guanche population. After the end of the Conquest, the valley was granted by deed to Rodrigo el Cojo, a native of Gran Canaria who had collaborated with the Europeans in the conquest of Tenerife, who received in 1499 " a fanega of irrigated land in the valley of Gueste, which is in Naga… ", a place where, according to the chronicles of the time, fig trees abounded. 

The great forest wealth of the upper valley was exploited from the very beginning. In the mid-16th century, numerous ships set sail loaded with wood extracted from here destined for the sugar mills of both Tenerife and Gran Canaria, a practice that continued for a long time.

By the mid-18th century, the hamlet of Igueste de San Andrés already had twenty-five neighbours (about a hundred inhabitants) who survived mainly thanks to fishing, vine cultivation, wheat, and various species of legumes. In 1852, a century later, the population reached 260 inhabitants (52 neighbours), and around that time it had its first local mayor. 

The steep mountains enclosing the valley served very early as a place for observation watchtowers from which Santa Cruz was alerted to the proximity of fleets near its port. This service continued until the 1870s. In 1887, a significant maritime semaphore station began to be built very close to where the old watchtowers had been, with its dock and carriageway. The main task of this new facility, which operated between 1891 and 1971, was to communicate approaching merchant fleets with the port of Santa Cruz.

In 1889, Igueste suffered a devastating epidemic of malaria fever, probably typhoid. As a result, the first proper cemetery was built, completed in 1894 and located on the slope of the cliff that closes the valley to the north, on the outskirts of the hamlet. The church, dedicated to Saint Peter the Apostle, began construction in 1890 and was definitively consecrated on 29 June 1909. Initially dependent on the parish of San Andrés, it was elevated to parish status in 1943.

In 1901, the municipal architect Antonio Pintor designed the bridge that permanently joined the two inhabited slopes. Twenty years later, in 1921, the carriageway from San Andrés finally reached the village, the predecessor of the current TF-21 road. 

Today, Igueste de San Andrés is a characteristic place within the Anaga rural park. Its special microclimate causes the existence of a great diversity of tropical fruit trees, giving it the appearance of an orchard amid the steep slopes that surround it. The hamlet maintains a close relationship with hiking, being the destination of many trail routes that run through the surroundings. As a sign of this, in the village square there is a commemorative plaque installed by the Federación Tinerfeña de Montañismo (Tenerife Mountaineering Federation).

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