The XXII Symposium of Historic Centers and Cultural Heritage of the Canary Islands will be held for the first time in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and will be dedicated to the landscape and heritage of the Coastal City. The High Pass Castle It is one of those assets that are found on the coastal strip of Santa Cruz and for which its opening to the public has been demanded, with ideas such as creating a Museum of Historical Memory, given that it was one of the buildings that the coup plotters used as a prison during the Spanish Civil War.
That idea was left up in the air, among other things because it is located on port land, which is why the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, pointed out yesterday that, whatever the use given to this Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), , must be the port of Santa Cruz who proceeds to his rehabilitation.
“What I ask is that each public administration do its homework in terms of heritage rehabilitation. We do ours in the buildings that are our property, in which we are investing more than 30 million. The same obligation has any administration, be it Social Security, be it the Port Authority”. This message is also addressed to the Government of the Canary Islands, owner of the old Spa, of whose rehabilitation, the mayor admitted, nothing more has been known.
Bermúdez was accompanied in the presentation of the Symposium, which will take place in November, by the Councilor for Culture, Gladis de León; the general director of Cultural Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands, Antonia Perera Betancor, and the general director of the Cicop Foundation, Miguel Ángel Fernández Matrán.
Santa Cruz planned to recover the Paso Alto Castle for public use in 2017
The Department of Historical Heritage began talks to launch guided routes that allow access to the fortress from the Military Club of the Paso Alto Castle. Perhaps the history treasured by many of the fortifications that made up the defense of the Santa Cruz coastline, when this was called the Canary Islands stronghold, end up being lost with the last stones that remain of them. But there are others that are still standing, in a perfect state of conservation and that could represent a unique attraction for the resurgent tourism industry in the capital.
The High Pass Castle It is one of those fortifications that is in a very good state of preservation and that what has happened within its walls deserves to be told. Since being the final resting place of the pirate Dog head (in his cells he waited for his execution building replicas of ships), to become a crackdown during the Civil War or even welcome within its walls a miraculous christ. The Association for the Defense of the Historical Heritage of Santa Cruz has proposed to the Department of Heritage of the capital, the opening of this space, declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) in 2012 and that would allow such a special historical piece to be valued.
