The town of Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife

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Presentation

The economy of the municipality of Icod is based on agriculture, in practice on the cultivation of bananas and grapes, on trade, the main business center of Icod and finally on fishing.

The large amount of water coming down from the mountain allowed the cultivation of sugar cane and the vine. However, it was not until the early twentieth century that was regulated latter activity, which figured since on its image.

The historic center of Icod de Los Vinos was declared a Cultural Interest on 5 October 2004, in the "Historical Set."

Etymology and toponymy

Icod was founded in the late fifteenth century under the reign of Ycoden, Guanche chief of that region; Los Vinos has gained importance in the sixteenth century by the culture of the vine.

Situation

Icod de los Vinos is located in the wine area in the northwest of Tenerife, 22 km from Puerto de la Cruz.

Visits

The Town Hall (Ayuntamiento)

The town of Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife. Town Hall. Click to enlarge the image.

The street San Agustín leads instead León Huerta who stands after a porch, with its balustrade and four Genoese statues representing the different seasons. Everything is chaired by the City Hall building with a neo-Canarian facade, built on the site of the former Augustinian convent of San Sebastián, founded in the sixteenth century.

In the street San Sebastián, you can admire beautiful mansions dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth century, as the mansion of the Marquis of Santa Lucía and its Renaissance façade and Baroque elements or the remains of Fleytas.

The St. Augustine’s Church (Iglesia San Agustin)

The Church of St. Augustine (second half of the sixteenth century) has retained its arches and has a beautiful Mudéjar coffered ceiling in the chapel of La Soledad. This church is also distinguished for the tabernacle of neoclassical sanctuary and elegant chair.

The church also contains four interesting paintings on wood representing the Gospels and a sculpture of the Virgen de Gracia seventeenth century.

Visiting hours: hours of worship

The St. Mark’s Church (Iglesia Matriz de San Marcos)

The town of Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife. Church. Click to enlarge the image.

The parish church of St. Mark the Evangelist is located on the square Andrés de Lorenzo Cáceres; it contains a very rich heritage. It was built in the last years of the fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century, in 1570, was rebuilt a magnificent three-nave church that must at stonemason Miguel Antúnez. We added two chapels in three main naves separated by columns and arches in half hanger. It has a painted wooden ceiling of the late eighteenth century.

The town of Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife. St. Mark's Church. Click to enlarge the image.

The town of Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife. San Marcos church door. Click to enlarge the image.

Mudejar dominates throughout the church structure, although there are also elements of other styles, such as style renaissance portal, bell tower inspired by the French Gothic altarpieces and the choir and the pulpits that we owe the Baroque. The main altarpiece, Plateresque, is distinguished by its many niches.

In one of these niches located in the center altarpiece is the statue of the patron of the place, San Marcos Evangelista, a small Flemish Gothic statue which, according to legend, would have appeared on the coast of the kingdom of Guanche Icoden before the conquest island by the Spaniards. So it would be the oldest statue now kept in Tenerife.

Found in other niches important sculptures:

The anonymous statue of San Diego de Alcalá in Madrid School (1710), a masterpiece which some attribute to the Granada sculptor Pedro de Mena and would be for some the finest specialists piece of Spanish sculpture of all time.
Christo Vivo of José de Arce
The statues of San José y el Niño de Martínez Montañés
El Nazareno de Martín de Andújar
El Señor de la Humildad y Paciencia of Alonso de la Raya
La Virgen del Rosario of Fernando Estévez
Cristo Crucificado, a statue in corn dough that must be the Indians of Michoacán in Mexico.

See the big picture of Las Animas (eighteenth century painter José Tomás Pablo native of Puerto de la Cruz), the picture of Santa Ana and La Asunción.

The goldsmiths of the temple is on display in the museum. You can not miss the Cross Watermark solid silver of Mexico, both for its size - 48 kilos and 2.40 meters high - but also for the elegance and precision of this work, carried out between 1663 and 1665 in Havana by artist Jerónimo de Espellosa, ranked as one of the most beautiful cross in silver filigree in the world. Cross was commissioned by Nicolás Estévez Borges, Bishop of Havana and a native of Icod.

The Church of Saint Mark and movable in relation to it were declared Property of Cultural Interest May 16, 2006, in the Monument category.

Address: Place de Lorenzo Cáceres

Visiting hours: during hours of worship.

Sacred Art Museum: 9 am to 13 h 30 and 16 h to 18 h 30

Plaza de La Pila

Instead of La Pila or La Constitución is surrounded by a set of monuments among the most important of the Canaries because of their architectural features. Thus we find many homes in the colonial style, built between the seventeenth and nineteenth century among which we must mention the palace of Lorenzo Cáceres, combining Mudejar with the neoclassical which Gonzalo de Lorenzo Cáceres, the genius of Colonel military, ordered the construction in 1802. This house has a neoclassical facade with three floors and has been recently restored in order to accommodate the House of Culture and the art center. The elegant stone fountain dates from the first half of the eighteenth century.

In the center of the square is an elegant stone fountain and a copy curious palm-shaped candelabra.

The hospital in Los Dolores

On one side of the square of La Pila, if you go up the street San Antonio, we arrive at the old hospital in Los Dolores with courtyard and upper balcony corridor dating from the seventeenth century. This building belongs to the nuns of the order of El Buen Consejo.

The Monastery of the Holy Spirit (Convento del Espíritu Santo)

The Franciscan convent of the Holy Spirit, with very clean lines, is one of the best examples of Canarian colonial architecture of the seventeenth century. This architectural ensemble is distinguished by the Church of San Francisco that has a rococo altarpiece crowned by a Calvary, containing the statue of Cristo de las Aguas, a statue of 1643 venerated in Icod that we owe to Francisco Alonso de la Raya. The statue was brought to Icod while drought was raging for a long time and his arrival would bring a period of rain.

The chapel of Nuestra señora de los Dolores belongs to the convent well that it is an independent body. It is considered one of the finest examples of religious architecture of Tenerife eighteenth century. Inside the chapel alternates Mudejar style with Rococo decoration and Portuguese inspiration of solutions with the painted roof of the rectory.

Just in front of the chapel in the street San Francisco, one can see the house-museum where lived the poet Emeterio Gutiérrez Arvelo.

The Dragon Park (Parque del Drago)

The town of Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife. Click to enlarge the image.

The Dragon Park is mandatory to visit. It keeps the dragon tree (Dracaena draco) “Millennium” or “two thousand year” of Icod. This is the most famous and oldest of all the Canaries, symbol of the city and the island.

It measures 21 meters high and has a circumference of 10 m at the base; This is undoubtedly the most preferred specimen of this botanical species and appearance of prehistoric origin.

The dragon is, with the palm, the most significant natural feature of Tenerife.

The town of Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife. Dragon. Click to enlarge the image.

However, recent studies have shown that her real age would be only 400 years.

Ermita de Las Angustias

The hermitage of Las Angustias is in the street of the same name. It is a chapel dating from the eighteenth century where you can admire the statue of the virgin patron of the place, one of the pus representative works of Mexican Baroque (eighteenth century), as well as other interesting works as the Cristo de la Columna of the Seville school of the eighteenth century and a statue of San José de Fernando Estévez.

Among the many offerings that make up this church, note a stuffed crocodile, donated by an emigrant during the foundation of the temple.

Address: Street Las Angustias.

Ermita de San Antonio de Padua

Ermitage Saint Anthony of Padua.

Wind Cave (Cueva del Viento)

The Wind Cave is the second largest volcanic cavity in the world, with over 17 kilometers of known tunnels. This is a very complex volcanic tube having several intakes. This cave is distinguished by its high internal complexity, a variety of geomorphological structures and a vibrant wildlife and original fossil.

There are other large caves in other places of the city: San Marcos, Punto Blanco, El Rey, Felipe Reventón...

St. Mark Beach (Playa San Marcos)

The town of Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife. Sand the San Marcos Beach. Click to enlarge the image.

To get to St. Mark’s beach, you have to take the deviation of the C-820 road from Icod de los Vinos. This is a small black sand beach but a lot of sand. It is a popular beach, especially in summer.

It is advisable to be careful with the currents. There are several bars and restaurants in the area and showers and changing rooms.

Practical information

Useful information

Tourist Office: Calle San Sebastián, 8