A municipality called: Santa Úrsula

Municipality: Santa Úrsula

History

In the pre-Hispanic epoch in these lands the King of Taoro was residing; the Mencey Bencomo. The population was centring on the Ravine "Barranco Hondo" and the Top of "El Ancón" (the place where archaeological deposits have been situated). 

Once the conquest was finished, the lands were not covered, on having been neither so fertile nor so rich in water as those of the valley of La Orotava; and to the being a municipality of high slopes. For this motive the place was occupied by prominent figures of minor range of the conquest. One of them was Fernando Guanaterme.

Drago

As the rest of the municipalities on the island, the population would be growing or descending according to the economic prosperity, (everything was based on the cultures). After the conquest, the first culture was cereals and grapevine (cultivates the malvasía destined for Europe, England), and in the 17th century it was introduced the potato. 

In the 19th century the population saw years of prosperity, due to the vineyard. This production of wine was the major one of Acentejo's region. It was in the18th century, when there is cultivated the red wine, typical of this region. 

With the culture of the wood-louse this population returns to increase, seeing migratory brigades when it enters into crisis. In the 20th century, the century in which one agrees the culture of the banana, returns to a growth of the population, who does not descend from alarming form with the migrations to Cuba and to Venezuela, having another growth of the population when they come back.

View to Puerto de la Cruz 

This growth gives origin to the  small city, the parish being constructed at the beginning of the 17th century. In the zone one supported always a limited elite of smallholders and administrators of proprietary absentees. The major household was  the Marquesses of Villanueva del Prado and Quinta Roja and Los Román. It was not possessing  schools, except that of any women.

Thanks to the nearness of  Puerto de la Cruz  and some tourist infrastructure, it has favored the structure of the active population and accentuating the character of city bedroom.

Old Houses

Representative Buildings

It is not the only municipality that does not have an interest to preserve the architectural heritage, meeting clearly the destruction of a good part of the real estate. But nonetheless, we find dispersed for the municipality several real estate that have to of visiting itself.

Parish  of Santa Úrsula: declared BIC. Church of an alone ship and floor of a Latin cross, with major chapel and two wings separated by arches of hewn stone. In the front of hewn stone one finds a front page of half a point between toscanas pilasters. The cover is from Arabic tile to two waters. Attached to the north front a tower is constructed in 1993 in hewn stone. 

Of this church initiated in the 16th century reformed and extended in the 17th century, it is necessary to highlight the decoration of the front  (example the traditional guidelines of the religious building in the Canaries).

Church

House of the Captain or Vera: Declared BIC. The House of the Captain dates back to the 17th century and placed at the end of the street Captain. It possesses two plants in the shape of "L" and the building is organized around a great court of two sides.

The main face possesses a balcony, covered with tiles and a breastwork. Also the rich decoration and of the windows (a decorative slightly frequent manifestation in the island).

Balcony

House of the Portuguese: Declared BIC. The building, of  one plant has and a small central court. The main face is orientated towards the north. 

Portuguese´s House

Bencomo's cave: Declared BIC. There the Mencey de Taoro was residing and it is located in the Ravine of the Pinito or of the Pine. Already in the 19th century the mansion of the Mencey was described as a housing of three caves, with a species of a portico with irregular form. By means of an alley one was acceding to the second floor. 

There  it was finding an inscription: "Here lived Quevehi Bemcomo, Mencey de Taoro, defending of his land, of which and of the freedom it deprived the greed of the Spanish in 1497". Nowadays it is slightly upset. Though the exact situation still carries to some doubt.

Cave

Bridge of the king or of Iron: In Ravine Hondo, facilitating the communication with La Victoria was a result of the visit of Alfonso XIII in 1906, which one held to the execution. A new bridge to the island in this epoch since it was of reinforced concrete.

Bridge

Hermitage and House of San Clemente: construction for Tomás's will of Plain amid mountains and Grimón, Marquess of Villanueva of the Meadow, one of the major local owners and of the archipelago, leaving it in his(her,your) testament in 1670. In the house it was where it(he,she) did the first experiments with worn plants(floors) of America. This one was the first place about which it was thought to put the Botanical Garden (that finally one finds in the Port of the Cross).

House

Hermitages of San Salvador and Saint Bartolome: in the zone of La Corujera, they are a construction of  the beginning of the XVIIIth. The construction coincides with the simple religious habitual constructions of the fields: rectangular floor, walls of stone and mud and cover of Arabic tile. It is formed by a central front, a roof to two waters and a reed-mace in the right wings. The hermitage has suffered reforms.

Ermitage

Casona, Calvary and Hermitage of San Luis: Estate belongs to an attorney of the Royal Hearing of the islands. The thing is a building of two plants and to four water tile, which nowadays one uses as room of exhibitions.

The Calvary is a construction of masonry that dates back to the 17th century. And opposite to this one we find San Luis' hermitage, finishing the works in 1681 (Saint San Luis, height of the 17th century, saint of the one that was devout). It is a simple construction of rectangular floor.

House and Cavary

Later we name two heritages more ,but of that we do not have photos:

House of the Marqueses Quinta Roja: It is under the highway. It preserves the houses of the mediators. Also, it is possible to see the labor of arboreal repopulation projected by the marriage, forming a slightly exceptional forest in the zone of the coast. Though not care of the same one and the indiscriminate construction they led to the disappearance of the same one.

Hermitage of Santa Ana: it is not known the epoch of construction. It is after the walls of an estate (private house, but the owners were opening it to celebrate the holidays that took place in July).

From Santa Úrsula

Santa Úrsula