Wax Figure Museum

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Cultural spaces · Subcategory: Theaters · Year: 1807

Wax museums were very popular throughout the 19th century worldwide. Their appeal was the recreation of popular figures from history, spectacle, politics and current affairs, in their most characteristic poses. The manufacturing techniques and incorporation of details achieved enormous realism that delighted the public.

One of these shows arrived in the Canary Islands and more specifically in Santa Cruz at the end of February 1807. It came from the hands of a master and three Italian craftsmen from Piedmont who, after touring England and several European countries, settled here for several months before continuing their journey to America.

In Santa Cruz they set up their museum in a house located on Calle de los Malteses, now Candelaria. There, for the price of a tostón, one could see in a room decorated with "encarnada" silk, wax statues of: the pope seated on his throne with the German emperors beside him; images of the kings of Spain, the Prince of Asturias, the Prince of Peace, the Queen of Portugal, the recently guillotined Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Napoleon and Josephine, a Friar Diego de Cádiz preaching, and even action scenes showing the assassination of French General Kléber during the Egyptian campaign, or Robespierre on the scaffold.

The figures were very lifelike according to witnesses: flesh-coloured faces and hands; glass eyes; natural hair and dresses of cloth and silk. The spectacle was also accompanied by the music of a barrel organ played by the museum owner's own daughter.

As additional experiences, the master could portray visitors in wax on request, as well as experiment with the attending public the effects of electricity on the fingers of the hand. 

This itinerant show, never before seen in these parts, visited, besides Santa Cruz, the Canary cities of La Laguna, La Orotava, El Puerto de La Cruz and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

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