Village
A town in northern Tenerife and the chief town of the Valle de La Orotava. It was a royal domain (lugar real) around 1502, obtained the title of villa exenta from Philip IV on 28 November 1648, and that of 'Muy Noble y Leal Villa' from Alfonso XIII in 1905. Its old town, with its Canarian colonial layout and houses with pine-wood balconies, was declared a conjunto histórico-artístico (historic-artistic ensemble) in 1976.
Monument
A parish church built between 1768 and 1788 on the site of a hermitage erected after the conquest of Tenerife and raised to parish status in 1503. On 18 June 1948 it was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico Nacional, the heritage designation used in Spain between 1931 and 1985.
Monument
Also known as Casa Fonseca, it was built between 1632 and 1675 and is one of the best-known examples of Canarian Baroque architecture in wood, with a running balcony of carved pine and an interior courtyard. Since 1932 it has housed the Eladia Machado craft workshop, devoted to traditional lace and openwork embroidery.
Monument
A 19th-century garden planted over a former fruit orchard, commissioned by the Marchioness Sebastiana del Castillo. At the top stands the Lyon marble mausoleum of the 8th Marquis of Quinta Roja, Diego Ponte del Castillo, a freemason to whom the Church denied Christian burial; it was built by the French architect Adolph Coquet between 1882 and 1883. The City Council acquired the gardens in 1991.
Monument
A 3,390 m² garden created in 1788 by Alonso de Nava y Grimón, 6th Marquis of Villanueva del Prado, as a supplementary nursery for the Jardín de Aclimatación in Puerto de la Cruz, on land belonging to the former convent of San José (demolished in 1868). On 21 June 2007 it was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) with the category of historic garden.
Nature
The municipal summit of La Orotava reaches the 3,718 m of Mount Teide, within the Parque Nacional del Teide, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2007. The park is shared with other Tenerife municipalities (Icod de los Vinos among them); the difference in elevation between sea level and the summit makes La Orotava the municipality with the greatest altitude range in Spain.
Nature
A protected area of Canary pine forest in the high midlands of the municipality, part of La Orotava's catalogue of natural areas, which lists 139 recorded higher plant species, 50 of them endemic to the Canary Islands.
Nature
A black volcanic sand beach on the coast of La Orotava, surrounded by a palm grove and reached by a footpath from the Barranco del Bollullo; one of the municipality's three beaches, alongside those of Los Patos and El Ancón.
Historical milestone
The municipality once had a historic network of 13 water-powered gofio mills spread across the valley; ten survive today, three of which are still working.
Activity
For Corpus Christi, the streets of the old town are covered with carpets of flowers, and in the town hall square with a large ephemeral carpet of volcanic earths and sands of different colours brought from Las Cañadas del Teide. The festival, together with the pilgrimage of San Isidro Labrador held since the mid-17th century, has been declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (Festival of National Tourist Interest) since 1980.
Activity
A Sunday pilgrimage that closes the Corpus festivities, preceded the day before by the Baile de Magos in traditional Canarian dress; in its current form it has been held since 1936.
Curiosity
The municipal territory runs from sea level up to the 3,718 m summit of Mount Teide, making La Orotava the municipality with the greatest altitude range in Spain.
Food and drink
A wine Denominación de Origen created by order of the Canary Islands' Department of Agriculture of 29 December 1994, covering the municipalities of La Orotava, Los Realejos and Puerto de la Cruz. Vine-growing dates back to 1541, when the Portuguese Fernando de Castro planted the first vineyard in the Canary Islands at the Hacienda de Los Príncipes (Los Realejos); during the 16th to 18th centuries the valley's malvasía wine made the old Puerto de La Orotava (today Puerto de la Cruz) the archipelago's leading port. Characteristic of the area is the 'cordón' training system, with vines trained and woven parallel to the ground.
Monument
A former Augustinian convent in the historic centre of La Orotava, converted into the municipality's Casa de la Cultura, within the conjunto histórico-artístico (historic-artistic ensemble) declared in 1976.
Nature
A protected natural area in the midlands of La Orotava, part of the network of natural areas that surround the Valle de La Orotava together with the Parque Natural de la Corona Forestal.