Plaza de España

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Squares, streets & markets · Year: 1947 y 2008 · Authors: Tomás Machado y Méndez Fernández de Lugo, Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron

The space occupied by this enclosure is established as one of the most significant places in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Throughout its history, this urban area has changed its function according to the needs of the citizens. Immediately after the conquest was completed, it was decided to build a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation in this area, which at that time was a wide basalt platform extending into the sea. In 1576, this chapel was dismantled to make way for a defensive construction with a square design, vaulted embankment, and four bastions at the corners, completed in 1578.  This was the Castle of San Cristóbal, one of the largest military works carried out in the Archipelago and the main defence of the city for centuries, participating in all the military events that took place in Santa Cruz throughout its history. This old castle, a symbol of the city, was demolished in 1929 to achieve a much wider entrance to the city from the port. From then on, the resulting site opened up innovative urban possibilities.  

It was in early 1944, after the civil war ended, that the Canary Islands Economic Command called a national competition to locate here "... a monument in memory of the sons of Santa Cruz de Tenerife..." who died in the fratricidal conflict that had devastated Spain. The work was awarded to the project proposed by architect Tomás Machado Méndez-Fernández de Lugo, who proposed a large circular square with the Monument to the Fallen in its centre. This monument was configured by a 25-metre-high cross, an emblem that combined two fundamental elements of that moment: the name of the city and the insignia of the so-called "National Crusade" by the victorious side of the war. The enormous cross was accessed from a platform with steps. Although the basic idea was Machado's, different artists participated in the entire architectural and sculptural ensemble. The sculptural group formed by a matron and a male figure representing "The Homeland" and "The Fallen", as well as the side reliefs showing locals carrying products from the sea and land and soldiers from the three armed forces (land, sea, and air), were created by sculptor Enrique Cejas Zaldívar; as were the two imposing bronze male figures in a guard stance leaning on sword-crosses and looking down, covered only by a mesh on their heads. Another sculptor, Alonso Reyes Barroso, modelled the central body of the tower base occupied by a fountain in which a ship carries a female figure (an allegory of Victory). A door on the rear façade leads either to the crypt containing paintings reproducing a pantocrator by artist Antonio Torres, or to the staircase leading to the top of the tower where there is a viewpoint.

Work on this entire ensemble began in March 1945, inaugurated with great pomp on 19 February 1947, although the work was not completed until 1950. It was the largest construction undertaken by the Canary Islands Economic Command, clearly conveying the ideological message appropriate to the aesthetic deployed in those years by the regime resulting from the civil war. 

The square was remodelled in 2008 according to a design by Swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron, winners of the competition called by the Port Authority for the Muelle de Enlace city project, integrating an intervention that sought access to the sea through a continuous space. The Monument to the Fallen was preserved, but not the circular square. With a new asphalt pavement, the enclosure was provided with a huge central lake of seawater that can be filled or emptied depending on usage needs. In the centre of the large pond, a spectacular geyser was installed. Surrounding this lake are three pavilions covered by vegetation according to the model patented by Patrick Blanc. There was also a set of exclusive design luminaires for the work, consisting of drop-shaped pieces in three sizes, suspended by cables between several posts. The project, in addition to deeply restoring the existing monument, created an underground gallery allowing visitors to see the ruins of the base of the old Castle of San Cristóbal, found during the works.

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