Logbook · 11 places

What to see and do in Valverde

What to see and do in Valverde (El Hierro, Santa Cruz de Tenerife): 11 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 3 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones · 2 Food and drink

When to go to Valverde: festival calendar

July: Bajada Cuatrienal de la Virgen de los Reyes (cada cuatro años, desde el primer sábado de julio; origen en 1741)

How far each place is from the centre of Valverde

Towns near Valverde

What to see in Frontera 11 km · 12 places
What to see in El Pinar de El Hierro 14 km · 14 places

Spain › Canary Islands › Santa Cruz de Tenerife › El Hierro › Valverde

What to see and do in Valverde

Valverde
Village
The capital of El Hierro since the island's conquest in the early 15th century. It is the only Canarian island capital not on the coast: it was sited inland, at around 600 metres above sea level, to guard against pirate and corsair attacks.
Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción
Monument
The island's main parish church, built between 1767 and 1820 in a late Baroque style with classicist leanings. It was declared a Bien de Interés Patrimonial de Canarias (a Canary Islands regional heritage designation), with the category of Monument, in 2004.
Mirador de la Peña
Monument
A viewpoint designed by César Manrique next to the hamlet of Guarazoca, 700 metres above sea level, opened on 17 June 1989. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) by the Government of the Canary Islands in 2001.
Árbol Garoé
Nature
At the site of Ventejís, next to San Andrés, stands the tree that Bimbache tradition held sacred: by condensing the moisture from the trade winds, it dripped water that was collected in basins carved into the rock, on an island with no rivers. Legend has it that a young woman named Agarfa revealed its location to the Castilian conquerors. The original Garoé fell in a hurricane in 1610; the present tree, a til (Ocotea foetens) planted on the same spot, dates from the mid-20th century (sources disagree between 1949 and 1957).
Conquista de El Hierro
Historical milestone
In late 1405, Jean de Bethencourt subdued the island's Bimbache population, bringing its aboriginal era to an end. Valverde was later founded as the capital, sited inland to guard against pirate and corsair attacks.
Central Hidroeólica Gorona del Viento
Curiosity
It came into operation on 27 June 2014 in the municipality of Valverde. It combines five 2.3 MW wind turbines with a reversible hydraulic power station in an attempt to supply the island with 100% renewable energy, a pioneering project followed internationally.
Geoparque Mundial de la UNESCO El Hierro
Curiosity
In 2014 El Hierro was admitted to the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network, the first in the Canary Islands, in recognition of its geological heritage — volcanoes, lava flows and large landslide amphitheatres — and the 61 geosites that document the island's growth and destruction.
El Hierro, Reserva de la Biosfera
Curiosity
UNESCO declared El Hierro a Biosphere Reserve on 22 January 2000, a designation distinct from World Heritage status that recognises the balance between conservation and sustainable development across the whole island.
Queso herreño ahumado
Food and drink
A cheese made from cow's, goat's and sheep's milk, traditionally smoked with rockrose, dry fig-tree wood or prickly pear pads, which gives it its rough, dark rind. Its artisan production is concentrated mainly in Isora, in the municipality of Valverde. By mid-2024 the island's cheesemaking associations were processing an application with the Government of the Canary Islands for a Protected Designation of Origin for El Hierro cheese, not yet granted.
Quesadilla herreña
Food and drink
A baked sweet made with fresh, unsalted herreño cheese, flour, egg, sugar, aniseed and grated lemon zest, shaped into flowers or stars. Along with the smoked cheese, its Protected Geographical Indication was in process in 2024.
Bajada Cuatrienal de la Virgen de los Reyes
Activity
Every four years, the image of El Hierro's patroness is carried in procession from her sanctuary at La Dehesa (Frontera) to Valverde, passed from town to town at the so-called 'rayas' that mark the municipal boundaries. The tradition, known as 'El Voto' (The Vow), goes back to the drought of 1741, when the island sought her intercession and, according to popular belief, rain fell shortly afterwards. It begins on the first Saturday of July, and a month later the Virgin starts her journey back to her sanctuary.