Carta Palace

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1721-52 · Authors: Francisco de la Pièrre

This is the oldest building preserved in Plaza de la Candelaria and one of the best examples of Canarian domestic architecture built during the 18th century.

In 1721 Captain Matías Rodríguez Carta acquired the existing house on this site and immediately demolished it in order to build a new building from the foundations. The work lasted approximately thirty-one years, with the engineer Francisco de la Pièrre involved in its design, who had previously befriended Matías Rodríguez Carta during the construction of the Santa Cruz pier in which both participated.

The building's façade is entirely of ashlar masonry. It consists of three storeys with lintelled openings and is topped by a cornice that undulates in the central section, where there is a clock installed in the mid-19th century.

The hallway has a staircase leading to the courtyard, whose access door features a twisted wooden frame on its rear side. The courtyard is one of the best preserved in the Canary Islands, highlighting the wide main staircase built in pine wood. On three sides of the courtyard there is an octagonal upright post with a Doric capital on which two superb Baroque corbels rest. The fourth side is closed, almost entirely altered in the 1950s. At the back there is a smaller courtyard, with the mezzanine gallery supported on a single column. The corridors of the main courtyard are enclosed by sash windows.

The granary is located on the third floor of the building, above which protrudes a lookout with balustrades topped by a spire. From this lookout all the vessels approaching the port could be seen. 

In the mid-19th century the building was the seat of the General Captaincy of the Canary Islands and later the Civil Government. In March 1947 it was declared a historic-artistic monument. From 1952 until the late 1980s, Carta Palace housed the offices of a banking institution. Currently, work is being carried out on the building to adapt it as a museum.

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