The town of Buenavista del Norte in Tenerife

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Presentation

General presentation

The town of Buenavista del Norte in Tenerife. Crest (author Jerbez). Click to enlarge the image.

The town of Buenavista del Norte in Tenerife. View from the Mirador Dom Pompeyo. Click to enlarge the image.

Buenavista del Norte is one of the few towns to the Canary Islands to have its foundation charter, granted by the Lieutenant Governor of Tenerife, Cristóbal Lebrón and “regidor” (sort of alderman) Fernando de Llerena, on request residents represented by Juan Méndez “El Viejo” and Juan de Mesa.

The oldest document referring to this village and that proves its existence as a Council is a deed dating from August 1516.

From the very beginning of colonization of Tenerife, in the early years of the sixteenth century, the town gradually takes shape with the arrival of a considerable flow of people coming to settle there, attracted by the farmers in farming already installed in the area for the cultivation of sugar cane.

The municipality of Buenavista consists of a vast plain covered with banana plantations and fruit trees to the rocky massif of Teno, ravines carved steep and almost inaccessible coves.

Buenavista del Norte is a primarily agricultural municipality, the ancestral habits, such as how to measure the passage of hours thanks to the shadows of the cliffs, where one can see a clear Hispanic influence.

The isolation in which lived some areas of the municipality has to take traditional forms of life.

Buenavista del Norte, with its streets of Andalusian style, is a town where there is absolute calm and where nature-related activities are omnipresent.

Etymology and toponymy

The name of Buenavista del Norte was given by the conquistadors who marveled at the beauty of his land (Buenavista literally means "good view”).

Situation

The town of Buenavista del Norte in Tenerife. Village location (author Jerbez). Click to enlarge the image.

Buenavista del Norte is a town of 67.42 km² located in the extreme northwest of the island of Tenerife, with an altitude of 110 m and at a distance of 71 Km from Santa Cruz de Tenerife by road; a population of 5453 inhabitants.

Buenavista is bounded on the east by the municipality of Los Silos, and south by Santiago del Teide by the ravine Seco.

Coordinates: Latitude 28.364441 N; longitude 16.849508 O

Visits

The Church of Our Lady of Remedies (Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios)

locust swarms, these terrible insects descended upon the scene, destroying all the crops in their path. The people of Buenavista met with their mayor, the lieutenant Hernando Yanes Méndez and they decided to go out in procession the statue of the Virgin of Los Remedios to scare them away. History has it that it was so and they disappeared. Since then, the statue has been venerated.

Buenavista was soon have a parish church dedicated to Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios and eight chapels spread over the vast territory of the commune. It also had a Franciscan convent, founded December 8, 1648 in houses ceded by one of the inhabitants of the city, Pedro Hernández, and dedicated to Nuestra Señora de Las Mercedes.

The construction of the church of the Virgin of Los Remedios dates back to the early sixteenth century. The church has three naves with round arches.

On 22 June 1996 the church was ravaged by a terrible fire reduced to ashes the state of its artistic heritage of incalculable value, destroying forever five centuries of cultural and spiritual heritage. This building is now restored.

The new statue of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios by sculptor native of Cadiz, Luis González Rey, arrived in Buenavista on 24 October 1997 in the cheers of the population of the region.

The Church of the Conception (Iglesia de la Conceptión)

Church of the sixteenth century.

To have

Other places to see, we should mention:

former granary
the Casa de la Viuda
the gate of the old cemetery
the former home of La Marquesa and the Casa de los Ruices ,
Hacienda San Juan de Taco, 1591-1655. (Domestic architecture)
the hacienda Finca de la Fuente and Chapel of La Fuente.

History, geography, arts, traditions, flora ...

History

The municipality of Buenavista began to build in the sixteenth century, from the beginning of the colonization of Tenerife. Throughout the seventeenth century, hacker attacks and Berber were common along the coast. The town was devastated by even a plague of locusts in 1659. Among the latest dramatic episodes, we must mention the burning of 22 June 1996 that destroyed the church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios and destroyed an extraordinary legacy: coffered Mudejar polychromatic altarpieces and sculptures of incalculable artistic and spiritual value including an interesting sculpture of Alonso Cano depicting St. Francis. The city preserves old mansions dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth century.

Practical information

Useful information

Tourist Office: Plaza de los Remedios, 2

Hotels

Restaurant

Other topics

Filiation of the topics

Canaries > Tenerife > Northern coast > Buenavista del Norte