Village
A coastal town in the Valle de La Orotava with port activity documented since 1502, at first as a fishing settlement dependent on La Orotava. It gained municipal autonomy on 3 May 1651 by Royal Grant of Philip IV and, in 1808, full autonomy, at which point it adopted its modern name, Puerto de la Cruz. It received the title of city by decree of 26 July 1956.
Historical milestone
Following the interest shown by European travellers and scientists such as Alexander von Humboldt, Sabin Berthelot and William Wilde in the climate of the Valle de La Orotava, the archipelago's first sanatorium was established in Puerto de la Cruz in 1886, and in 1890 the Hotel Taoro opened, one of the first large hotels in the Canary Islands, turning the city into Spain's first tourist resort of European standing.
Monument
A defensive fort in Puerto de la Cruz that operated until it was disarmed in 1878 and passed to the City Council in 1891 to serve as an infirmary and lazaretto; it was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico in 1949. Sources disagree on the year it was built: some place it between 1599 and 1604 and others in the mid-17th century, between 1641 and 1655. Today it operates as a cultural venue with exhibitions, concerts and recitals.
Monument
A church first built in 1697 and later extended, the main parish church of the historic centre of Puerto de la Cruz.
Monument
A building founded in 1620 that housed the port customs offices and the residence of its administrators. Restored by the Tenerife Island Council, it now houses the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Eduardo Westerdahl (MACEW).
Curiosity
This building in Puerto de la Cruz housed, between 1913 and 1918, the Estación de Antropoides de Tenerife (Tenerife Anthropoid Station), directed by the psychologist Wolfgang Köhler, considered the first primatology research centre in history.
Monument
The city's historic centre was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) with the category of historic ensemble by Decree 65/2006 of 23 May of the Government of the Canary Islands.
Monument
A botanical garden founded in 1788 by order of Charles III to acclimatise tropical species in Europe before their transfer to the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid; together with the latter, it is the only historic acclimatisation garden in Spain. It is listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) with the category of historic garden.
Monument
A complex of seawater lakes and pools on the Martiánez coast, designed by the artist César Manrique and opened in 1977. It is declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) with the category of historic garden under the name 'Lago de la Costa de Martiánez'.
Nature
A black sand beach redesigned by César Manrique, with extensive landscaped areas; it is made up of three stretches, Playa del Charcón, Playa del Castillo and Playa de Punta Brava.
Activity
A festival held on 15 July in honour of the patron saint of fishermen, with a maritime procession along the coast attended by more than 30,000 people from across the archipelago, making it the largest maritime procession dedicated to this devotion in the Canary Islands. It includes the singing of the 'Salve Reina de los Mares', fireworks and the traditional greasy-pole contest over the water.
Activity
One of the oldest and best-known carnivals in the Canary Islands, with a gala to elect the carnival queen, the burial of the sardine, and the distinctive obstacle race 'Mascarita Ponte Tacón', run in heels of at least 10 cm. A delegation from Düsseldorf takes part, a city twinned with Puerto de la Cruz since 1972 (with the twinning renewed in 2003).
Curiosity
A zoo opened on 17 December 1972 as a parrot sanctuary, with 150 birds at the outset; today it covers 135,000 m² and holds the largest parrot collection in the world, with around 4,000 specimens of some 350 species and subspecies.
Historical milestone
A document considered a forerunner of political environmentalism in Spain, made public on 29 May 1983 in Puerto de la Cruz during the city's Festival de Cine Ecológico (Ecological Film Festival).
Monument
A seafarers' hermitage from 1870 on the seafront promenade of Puerto de la Cruz, listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) with the category of monument; it hosts the Mass held before the maritime procession of the Virgen del Carmen.
Curiosity
The climate of the Valle de La Orotava attracted European naturalists and writers from the 19th century onward, among them the explorer Alexander von Humboldt, the geologist Leopold von Buch, the botanist Philip Barker Webb and, already in the 20th century, the novelist Agatha Christie, who stayed in the garden of the Sitio Litre.