The remodeling of the Plaza of the Patron Saint of the Canary Islands, in Candelaria, will begin after next summer. The work will be tendered in February and awarded during the first half of the year, for which the Council budgeted two million euros of the 19 million that its execution will cost, which will last between three and four years. “In February the project will go out to tender and in the first half of the year we hope to have the tender resolved so that we can start with the long-awaited and necessary works,” he announced. Peter MartinPresident of the Island Corporation.
“This is a big day for Candelaria, for Tenerife and for the Canary Islands,” said Mari Brito, mayor of Villa Mariana, who described as “ambitious” the programmed action to remodel “a cultural, religious symbol and of our identity.” as is the Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias and its surroundings. “The Christmas lottery has been ahead of us and we have won the Jackpot”, she summarized after recalling that “it is a lot of effort, work and commitment for this project to consolidate and move forward”.
Was the June 14, 2000 when Ricardo Melchior, then president of the Council of Tenerife, sitting next to the mayor of Candelaria at that time, Rodolfo Afonso, announced this work and said that it would be the first to be carried out of the three island squares (the other two are the Plaza de España chicharrera and the Plaza del Cristo lagoon). His hope, he said, was that construction would begin before the end of the term, in 2003.
The mayoress, Mari Brito, considers that “it is a big day for Candelaria, for Tenerife and for the Canary Islands”
22 and a half years have passed and it is now Pedro Martín who promotes the work of a project that “was in a drawer” and without the mandatory sectoral reports when he acceded to the island government, in 2019. He details that action will be taken in three areas that surround the Basilica and totaling 19,400 square meters: the promenade (3,431 square meters), the Plaza de la Patrona (13,640 square meters) and the Plaza de los Artesanos (2,354 square meters). Among the outstanding works, he outlined the construction of a ramp building that will house a sacred museum, a multifunctional room and a tourist office, among other uses. He also cited the resurfacing of the plaza and the current San Blas promenade and Cueva de Los Camellos, as well as the partial pedestrianization of Antón Guanche street, transforming it into a linear plaza at its upper end.
Mari Brito highlighted that the work includes the channeling of wastewater from the coastal area of Candelaria to the San Blas pumping station, in order to transfer the sewage from the Villa Mariana coast to the regional treatment plant located in Los camels. The drafting of the remodeling project for the Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias was awarded in 2010, being modified to incorporate the canalization works of the channel that runs under the square and the aforementioned hydraulic pipes.
The drafting architect, Eustaquio Martínez, recalled that from the original project (2010) only the underground car park has been removed -because of the water table, its cost and the high risk of traffic collapse derived from its use- as well as the waterfall in the Tapia ravine. He highlighted that the ramped building increases its public use by separating it from the parking lot; the staggered connection solution with the sea is replaced by two side ramps in order to provide greater protection for the area and in Plaza Los Artesanos “a boulevard with open-air commercial stalls” is propagated.
The 19 million bid budget is equivalent to an increase of four million over the initial price, due to the adjustment for inflation. This is how Pedro Martín remembered it, who valued the importance of this work, “with which we respond to a historical debt with the city council and with the citizenry. A symbolic space for Tenerife, one of the most visited on the Island (two million, according to the Mayoress) as a permanent place of pilgrimage, which required this action”, said Martín, who said that “today we have come to propose dates, not only proposals. In February the project will go out to tender and in the first half of the year we hope to have the tender resolved so that we can start with the long-awaited and necessary works”. There is still one property to be expropriated.
