Añazo Tower

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1464-1467

The Añazo tower could be the first European construction built in what would later become the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. 

In 1464, thirty years before the founding of the city, Diego García de Herrera, husband of Inés Peraza, lady (in a nominal capacity) of the Islands, landed at the mouth of the Bufadero ravine with the purpose of taking possession of the island before the aboriginal menceyes, through a document drawn up by a public notary. What Herrera achieved with this act, apart from having a document that confirmed ownership of the island, was to secure the friendship of the aborigines, to whom he promised protection against raids by other European visitors, especially the Portuguese. Both parties benefited: García de Herrera affirmed his legal possession through those legal ceremonies that left the indigenous people indifferent, while they would have some protection against the systematic looting they periodically suffered.

After this first contact, Herrera was allowed to build a tower in Añazo, which functioned not only as a lookout base against possible external attacks but also as a position of dominance over the land itself.

The exact location of its establishment is not clear. Some historians have thought it might have been located on the left bank of the mouth of the Tahodio ravine, near where the North Pier is today, an area where water possibly flowed almost all year round.   

The fortress must have looked very similar to the Torre del Conde de La Gomera, although perhaps more modest in proportions. Its medieval structure would have served as a refuge against attacks both from the sea and from the interior of the island.

The tower operated for some years until relations with the aborigines deteriorated and they assaulted the stronghold, forcing the Europeans into a hasty retreat.

In 1477 the Catholic Monarchs recognised and confirmed the rights of the Herreras and Perazas to the lordship of the four smaller islands; but they took for themselves the conquest of the three larger ones, so the lords of La Gomera no longer had any role in Añazo. When Alonso Fernández de Lugo landed in 1494 to begin the royal conquest of Tenerife, the Añazo tower was already history.

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