Santa Cruz de Tenerife commemorated yesterday the 529th anniversary of its founding with a solemn Eucharist presided over by the Bishop of the Diocese of Nivariense, Bernardo Álvarez, and concelebrated by the city’s parish priests, in the Matriz de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción Parish, and in in which ULM El Cabo also participated.
As is tradition, from 156 years ago when it was held for the first time, at its conclusion, the procession with the Holy Cross was held, which was attended by the king’s representative, together with the mayor of the capital, José Manuel Bermúdez, and other civil and military authorities, on their usual route that crossed the streets of Santo Domingo, Calzada La Noria and Padre Moore.
In the year 1494, Alonso Fernández de Lugo set foot on the land of Añazo and with him, the first wooden cross that served to establish the foundation of the Port and Place of Santa Cruz. Before, the conqueror had set foot on the sister islands of Gran Canaria and La Palma. From that point of Tenerife the conquest of the Island would begin, which would culminate in the year 1496.
That first wooden cross spent its first years without pain or glory, as the official chronicler of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Ledesma, remembers, forgotten by some and abandoned by others.
year 1896
It was not until 1896 when, after different locations, the founding cross was finally kept in the mother church of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. It was from there that the wooden cross was processed from yesterday, which now looks covered with a silver edging and a base.
