Logbook · 10 places

What to see and do in Icod de los Vinos

What to see and do in Icod de los Vinos (Tenerife - Icod-Daute-Isla Baja, Santa Cruz de Tenerife): 10 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

How far each place is from the centre of Icod de los Vinos

Towns near Icod de los Vinos

What to see in La Guancha 5.4 km · 4 places
What to see in Garachico 6.8 km · 8 places
What to see in San Juan de la Rambla 6.9 km · 7 places
What to see in El Tanque 7.8 km · 6 places
What to see in Los Realejos 9.8 km · 17 places
What to see in Los Silos 12 km · 5 places
What to see in Santiago del Teide 13 km · 6 places
What to see in Buenavista del Norte 15 km · 6 places

Spain › Canary Islands › Santa Cruz de Tenerife › Tenerife - Icod-Daute-Isla Baja › Icod de los Vinos

What to see and do in Icod de los Vinos

Icod de los Vinos
Village
A town in northwestern Tenerife whose settlement was raised to parish status in 1515 around a hermitage of San Marcos built around 1500. It became an independent municipality in 1812 following the Constitution of Cádiz. Its historic centre is declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) with the category of historic ensemble. It gives its name to the Icod-Daute-Isla Baja district.
Drago Milenario de Icod de los Vinos
Nature
A dragon tree (Dracaena draco) weighing over 140 tonnes and completely hollow inside, declared a Monumento Nacional, the heritage designation used in Spain up to 1931, in 1917 (the City Council had bought the plot a year earlier, on 6 September 1916). Although thousands of years are traditionally attributed to it, no scientific study has confirmed such an age; the most soundly based estimates place it at between 500 and 600 years old. It is the emblem of Icod and appears on the municipal coat of arms.
Iglesia de San Marcos Evangelista
Monument
A three-nave church dated to 1501 and rebuilt around 1570 by the master stonemason Miguel Antúnez, with a late-16th-century Renaissance portal. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), category of monument, on 16 May 2006. It houses a 17th-century Baroque altarpiece by Antonio Álvarez, the image of the Señor Difunto de Icod (made of corn-husk paste by indigenous Tarascan craftsmen from Michoacán and acquired before 1578), and a filigree silver-and-gold cross weighing 48 kilos and measuring 2.40 metres, made between 1663 and 1665.
Cueva del Viento
Nature
A volcanic tube with more than 17 kilometres of known passages, the longest in Europe and one of the largest in the world, with a structure of three superimposed levels of galleries. It preserves fossils of extinct fauna endemic to the Canary Islands, such as the giant lizard (Gallotia goliath) and the giant rat (Canariomys bravoi), as well as Guanche archaeological remains at several of its entrances. It is included in the Natura 2000 network (ES7020100).
Casa de los Cáceres
Monument
A three-storey neoclassical mansion commissioned by Lorenzo Cáceres, an engineering colonel, near the Parque del Drago. It is said to have as many doors and windows as there are days in the year. It now houses a museum and cultural centre for the municipality.
Convento Franciscano del Espíritu Santo
Historical milestone
A convent founded in 1641 thanks to donations from well-to-do families of Icod. It had an active community until 1821 and later served as a cemetery (1822-1838), a school, a theatre, a town hall, a barracks during the Civil War, and a music academy. It is now the municipal library.
Incendio de Icod de 1798
Historical milestone
On 2 May 1798 the worst fire in the history of Icod de los Vinos occurred, destroying more than twenty buildings in the municipality in two and a half hours.
Cueva de los Guanches
Historical milestone
An archaeological zone declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) that has yielded the earliest dates for human settlement in the Canary Islands, around the 6th century BC. Oral tradition, recorded by Friar Alonso de Espinosa, identified it as the dwelling of the mencey of Icod.
Playa de San Marcos
Nature
A black sand beach in a sheltered bay on the north coast of Icod de los Vinos, with a small fishing harbour; since the conquest it has served as a refuge for sailors and a trading point for timber used in shipbuilding.
Denominación de Origen Ycoden-Daute-Isora
Food and drink
A wine Denominación de Origen created in 1994, following a modernisation process begun in 1991 by wine growers and producers of the district. It takes its name from the old Guanche menceyatos of Ycoden and Daute and from the domains of princess Isora, and covers the vineyards of Icod de los Vinos, San Juan de la Rambla, La Guancha, Garachico, Los Silos, El Tanque, Buenavista del Norte, Santiago del Teide and Guía de Isora. Vine-growing in the area goes back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when it was almost the sole economic driver of the district.