La Cárcel Vieja

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Military architecture · Year: 1764?

It is assumed that the first establishments in Santa Cruz where prisoners were held for public order reasons were the military castles. Thus, we infer that both Paso Alto and San Cristóbal housed facilities intended to be detention centres. 

The first certain news about the establishment of a prison in Santa Cruz is found in the mid-18th century. The one later known as La Cárcel Vieja was located in a building on La Marina street, near its corner with Las Bodegas alley, in a house that had belonged to the Catalinian nuns of La Laguna. The establishment had two small rooms, a dungeon and a small room for the governor. 

It seems that the conditions of the place were not adequate; the prisoners were barely maintained by the aid of the San Carlos Hospice, and in 1817 a report stated: “… due to its dampness, gloom and stench any criminal held there would soon lose their health and be reduced to the most pitiful state, this being caused by the infiltration of water from the surrounding lands… ” It went on: “… it would never be suitable for the custody of prisoners, because as all the walls of the building suffer from extreme decay, this circumstance provides the easiest escape, and therefore the stay of any serious prisoner in said Royal prison cannot be secure; nor, due to its lack of comfort, would any person of some standing be arrested there, and so we see that it is only occupied by worldly women, prisoners of little consideration, and these remain only as long as they wish, because when they have felt like it they have escaped without the judge being able to prevent it ”.

The situation, as we see, was far from satisfactory. With difficulty, the old prison remained in operation until 1837, when its poor condition caused the prison facilities to be moved first to the former Franciscan convent, then to a private house located at the corner of San Francisco street with Bouza alley, and later to the also recently disentailled Dominican convent, where the lower rooms of the north wing were provisionally used as a prison.

The old house on La Marina street that housed La Cárcel Vieja was bought in 1840 by the merchants Lebrun and Davidson, who repaired it and converted it into a warehouse and storage for their goods destined for port traffic.

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