Portugal (Taganana)

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Squares, streets & markets · Year: 1506

The hamlet of Portugal, in Taganana, perches on a small mountain ridge at the edge of the ravine. It is a group of traditional houses aligned and attached whose origin dates back to the early 16th century, when the Portuguese Diego Sardina settled here along with a group of workers specialised in sugar production tasks. Most had come from Madeira, where they had already experimented with sugarcane cultivation and the installation of sugar mills. The exploitation of this incipient industry and the consequent export of sugar to the main European markets brought prosperity to this area of Anaga like never before or since. 

The houses stand at the edge of a cobbled path that started here and crossed dense forests and steep peaks to connect this remote place with the rest of the island. They are naturally adapted to the steep orography of the terrain and have a regular plan, one or two storeys, and roofs with two or four slopes covered with tiles. Their whitewashed façades are simple and feature sash windows, shutter leaves and painted wooden doors (green or brown) with panels.   

Today, many of them renovated and others in a ruinous state, they take us back to the oldest essence of the settlement of the colonists who inhabited and urbanised this corner of Tenerife.

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