The Cabildo de Tenerife will face the improvement works of the facilities of the Mirador de La Centinela, located between the municipalities of San Miguel de Abona and Arona. This was announced by the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, who visited the facilities accompanied by the insular vice-president, Lope Afonso, the director of Culture and Historical Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands, Miguel Ángel Clavijo and the mayors of the municipalities of San Miguel and Arona, Arturo González and Fátima Lemes, respectively. For Dávila, “centers like the one we are planning are strategic” to understand the history of our ancestors and enjoy the knowledge of the largest archaeological site on the Island.
This will be possible with the participation of all the administrations, mentioned above, “that have already started the technical meetings that allow us to give a renewed impetus to this place, and from sustainability to give a boost to economic and social development, which we will be able to count on. an important museum part, and a center where scientists can carry out their research”.
For his part, Miguel Ángel Clavijo highlighted the value that this place acquires for the population of Tenerife, because in it he would find the explanation of what he is seeing from this fantastic viewpoint. Not only the vestiges of past civilizations but the explanation of the transformation of this valley in recent years”.
Vice President Lope Afonso stressed that the recovery of La Centinela gives us another opportunity to reconcile the promotion of tourism towards a sustainable island, with the natural environment as a standard.
Both the mayor of San Miguel and the mayoress of Arona highlighted the importance of institutional collaboration to address this challenge and hoped that “now it can be a reality”, after the abandonment it has suffered in recent years, both remarking that it is not it can be forgotten that it is a place of scientific interest, but also of high emotional value for the residents of both municipalities.
The rehabilitation project promoted by the Cabildo aims to put into operation and promote a resource that has great potential both from the patrimonial point of view as it is located in the area of greatest uniqueness and archaeological diversity on the island, as well as from the socioeconomic field. In this way, the adequacy of the entire property and the installation on its lower floor of an interpretation center linked to the archaeological heritage of the Comarca de Abona and specifically to the cave sites is proposed.
Strategic lines
The plan that contemplates the project establishes as strategic lines the promotion of knowledge and enhancement of the archaeological heritage of the southern region of Tenerife, contributing to the improvement of the conservation of archaeological sites, establishing management mechanisms that improve their control through of public use, enrich the offer of cultural tourism in the southern region of Tenerife, generate an educational and didactic resource, which is made available to schools and society in general and contribute to the socioeconomic development of the mediocrity and generate employment , including qualified positions related to archaeology.
It must be remembered that in the past mandate, the municipality of San Miguel de Abona had asked the Cabildo to cede the use and management of these facilities through a collaboration agreement between the two administrations, a request that did not sit well with the neighboring municipality of Arona, which demanded that the Cabildo maintain the management of this space.
It must be remembered that the Mirador de la Centinela is located in the protected natural area of Roque de Jama, on land acquired in 1992 by the San Miguel de Abona City Council and later ceded to the Cabildo, which built the facilities. A large part of the infrastructure has been built on the land of San Miguel de Abona and another, lesser part, on that of Arona. With the visit made yesterday, and by the hand of the Government of the Canary Islands, it seems that, finally, it will be the insular Corporation that assumes the management.
