Santa Cruz de Tenerife – Victor Adam after Pierre de Sainson, 1833

“Sainte Croix de Ténériffe,” lithograph by Victor Adam after a design by Pierre de Sainson for Jules Dumont D’Urville’s Voyage de la Corvette l’Astrolabe 1826–29, published in 1833 by Louise Auguste de Tastu. With original hand colouring. Image size: 19 × 37 cm.

The French explorer Jules Dumont D’Urville (1790–1842) made three voyages around the world, during which he explored the southern and western Pacific, Australia, and Antarctica. On these journeys he also visited Tenerife, recording the following in his journal:

On 7 September 1826 the Astrolabe rounded Cape Anaga, leaving three large projecting rocks to starboard, and after an hour we had the Bay of Santa Cruz in sight, laid out in the form of a half-circle in which 12 ships of the line lay at anchor. The corvette fired the usual salute, and a small boat with five men appeared to guide us to the place assigned to us. While this was happening, I occupied myself with examining the position of the town, situated in a hollow at the foot of a steep slope on which the houses stand in a uniform line, interrupted only by some bell towers and lookout towers. Behind them rise massive basalt formations that resemble walls, their flanks entirely devoid of vegetation, causing an intense and suffocating heat.

We entered Santa Cruz through a wooden gate. The town made a large and pleasant impression on us, for its streets—straight, wide, and well ventilated—have pavements laid with round, uneven cobbles and bordered with lava tiles. The houses present an attractive appearance, generally featuring a spacious patio surrounded by colonnaded galleries that serve at once as vestibule and storeroom. In the centre is a rainwater cistern whose water is filtered through small basins of porous stone, supported by some ornaments in an Arabesque style and surrounded by water plants.

The staircase, located on one side of the patio, leads to the upper floor where the living quarters are found. The ceilings, with long beams of teak wood, look sombre on account of their size; yet they possess a coolness that is truly welcome in this fiery climate. The walls, simply plastered, are adorned with devotional paintings, miserable drawings, and small mirrors.

Santa Cruz has an inquisitor, but the zeal of the Holy Office is limited by commercial practice, so that its activity is restricted to banning harmful and philosophical works. In the churches, notices listing prohibited books are displayed, forming a catalogue that satisfies the curiosity of those who delight in novelty. Wealthy women do not wear round hats, for they usually walk in the shade, and their mantles are generally made of silk or muslin, decorated with long lace borders. Their pace is slow and their bearing phlegmatic. They hide their faces behind a fan and never turn them, not even out of courtesy. In general they are dark of complexion and not very plump; their noses are aquiline, their mouths large but with excellent teeth, their eyes lively, and their eyebrows black.

The beggars who swarm the streets of Santa Cruz combine shamelessness and boldness with laziness and neglect. At every step ragged children appear, approaching the passer-by to beg for a coin. In the higher circles of the town, foreigners are received with great cordiality. As newspapers and news from Europe always arrive late, recently arrived visitors are bombarded with endless questions.

In the square a short distance from the landing place, a fountain attracted our attention, which only flows in summer at fixed hours. This fountain, with a basin of black lava, is supplied by a stream that reaches the town through several kilometres of wooden conduits laid from valley to ravine, each joined to the next and supported by scaffolding. Here stands the statue of Our Lady of Candelaria, rising atop a white marble obelisk, with on its four corners the last four kings of the Guanche nation that once ruled Tenerife. All wear laurel wreaths and raise a human thighbone towards the sky. An inscription at its base attributes the destruction of that agricultural and warlike people to the intervention of the Virgin Mary. On this same square—without doubt the most beautiful of the three in Santa Cruz—large military exercises are held by the garrison and the militia.

The churches I visited are spacious but tasteless. Their columns and chapels are crowded with ex-votos, mediocre paintings, and a ridiculous profusion of gilding. The vaults and sculptures are blackened by the smoke of countless candle stubs that burn on all the altars of the sacred images. The tombs, their stone slabs covered with epitaphs, exhale a pestilential stench due to the custom of burying the dead there. Spaniards usually walk about in a woollen cloak, which they wear both in summer and winter. The streets are very busy with priests, hermits, and friars who are constantly stopped by the devout wishing to kiss their habit. Merchants seeking the protection of Our Lady of Candelaria offer small gifts to the reverend fathers.

Price: Euro 495,-