The Harbour Canopy

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1913

For many years, the port of Santa Cruz had no facility to protect passengers newly arrived ashore or waiting to embark. Initially, the boats that linked with ships anchored in the bay picked up or dropped off passengers at the access stairs to the quay, where they were exposed to the elements, enduring sun, wave splashes, and winds.

On the occasion of Alfonso XIII's first royal visit to the Canary Islands in 1906, the Town Hall commissioned the architect Mariano Estanga to design a kind of pavilion to provide shade and shelter for the entourage. The provisional construction not only fulfilled its purpose at that time but was later installed as a gazebo in the gardens of the Hotel Quisisana, where it remained for years.

In 1913, a few years after the establishment of the Junta de Obras del Puerto (Port Works Board), this cast iron canopy was installed. It was made in the Seville workshops of Juan Miró y Cía. and was located at the stairs of the second alignment of the quay.

Its structure is configured as a kind of open pavilion all around, where ornamental intention prevails over functionality.

When ships began to dock at the docks, the popular canopy lost its original function but continued to be a meeting point for people connected with port and maritime affairs.

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