Franciscans' Bridge or Guaite Bridge or Friars' Bridge

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: S. XVIII

This is the only bridge, of those built during the 18th century in the city centre, that was not located over the Santos or Aceite ravines. 

The Franciscans' Bridge crossed the small Guaite or San Francisco ravine, a watercourse that descends from the foothills of the Las Mesas mountain and today runs beneath Dr. Guigou, Puerto Escondido and Ruiz de Padrón streets, then turns right and connects behind the Hamilton building with Villaba Hervás street, emptying into the sea below La Marina and La Alameda.

The waters of this ravine were used to irrigate the orchard of the Franciscan convent, today occupied by Plaza del Príncipe, and to supply the people and houses that at the beginning of the 18th century began to populate this northern boundary area of the settlement. 

It was then that a small wooden bridge was built at the junction of the current San Francisco and Ruiz de Padrón streets. The footbridge enabled the movement of people and goods between the new neighbourhood that would be known as El Toscal and the town centre. 

The importance of this communication route was such that at the beginning of the 19th century the small ravine was vaulted in the area of the bridge, converting it into a street and thus facilitating transit between the new neighbourhood and the rest of the city.

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