I encourage you to close your eyes today and imagine what was happening on December 22, 1890. That day the Taoro Grand Hotel was inaugurated. Under enormous crystal chandeliers that illuminated the ballrooms and the grand dining room, elegant European gentlemen, along with their wives dressed in the finest attire, enjoyed the luxury of staying in the first great hotel in Spanish territory. Most of them were high-income visitors who traveled to the island either for health reasons or due to the tales of those illustrious travelers who described upon their return the wonders of a special place with an enviable climate and landscape.
The chosen location for the construction of our particular Titanic was originally called Mount Misery, which covers about one hundred thousand square meters on a lava hill that forms what we now know as Parque Taoro. An environment that has stood since then with the reminiscence of the British legacy that in the late 19th century decided to choose this place as a refuge.
Both the architecture of emblematic buildings still preserved—such as the Anglican church or the layout of the Camino de la Sortija where the British colony held horse races—transport us to that era of splendor that led the Sociedad Taoro, Construction and Operation Company of Hotels and Villas of the La Orotava Valley, to build there this grand building with the comforts of Europe’s luxury hotels. The aforementioned entity was made up of a significant group of members of the Tenerife bourgeoisie along with a small but wealthy number of foreign investors.
The conception of the building arose from the need to have in Puerto de la Cruz a place to meet the high demand existing at the time to accommodate tourists suffering from diseases, mainly pulmonary, since the first sanatorium in the Canary Islands, which was The Orotava Grand Hotel (Hotel Martínez), was not sufficient. It must be noted that in the 19th century many sick people, especially high-class Britons, traveled to the Canary Islands attracted by the healing properties of our climate, especially for respiratory or rheumatic diseases.
Old image of the Taoro Hotel in Puerto de la Cruz. | E. D.
The architect assigned to this work was the Frenchman Adolph Coquet, also responsible for the design of the mausoleum in the gardens of the Marquessate of Quinta Roja in La Orotava. The works began in 1888, and in December 1890 the central pavilion was inaugurated, continuing until 1893 with the construction of two wings at its ends, forming the u-shape that defines the entire building with a central garden oriented to the south. At that time, it had 217 rooms, a dining room for a hundred diners, a large lounge, a spacious lobby, a library, and a billiard room. It was an exclusive and unique place where the cream of Tenerife society could also enjoy, alongside the visitor, European luxury without having to leave the island.
However, the hotel was never profitable, and the aspirations of the first promoters collided with the great iceberg that was an investment of such magnitude that ended up doubling the initial budget. Additionally, there were changes in the European context, with significant advances in medicine that no longer demanded these health destinations. Despite the company’s attempts to add amenities to the hotel by installing the first tennis court in the Canary Islands or the first golf course, the hotel initiative began to falter, plunging the company into increasing debt that eventually became unsustainable.
To alleviate this situation, in 1901, the partners reached a leasing agreement with the German company Kurhaus Betriebs Gesellschaft, which changed the name of the establishment to Grand Hotel Humboldt-Kurhaus. In 1931, the economic scenario did not improve, and after several legal battles for the breach of initial conditions, the contract with the Germans was broken. The installation then passed to Khristian H. Trenkel—who already operated other tourist facilities, such as the Hotel Martínez, Aguere in La Laguna, or Quisisana in Santa Cruz—and seven years later, Gustavo Wildpret Duque, son of the former manager of the city’s Botanical Garden, took charge of it.
During those years, the hotel received the cream of European society. Among its guests were the dukes of Kent, Duke Nicholas of Russia, the kings of Belgium, and King Alfonso XIII, not forgetting other personalities from the political or cultural spheres, such as Dulce María Loynaz or Agatha Christie, who spent a few days in Puerto de la Cruz in 1927 with her daughter Rosalind and her secretary Carlo. Two years later, an event worsened the situation. On the night of May 8th to 9th, 1929, a fire broke out in the hotel kitchens, causing significant damage to the building. The press of the time echoed the start of the work, and in 1932 the newspaper La Prensa announced with satisfaction the decision of the hotel’s community of owners to “study the plans and projects for the immediate reconstruction of the central body and left pavilion, destroyed in the fire.”
But Wildpret’s attempts to recover the former splendor of this iconic building were met with the stagnation and regression of port activity due to World War I and then the start of the Spanish Civil War. It was at this point that Enrique Talg Schulz took over the hotel, which despite everything, continued to be a meeting point for the island elite.
As an anecdote, his grandson Enrique recounts how his grandfather faced real difficulties to keep it afloat in such a complex moment. When he finally decided to terminate the contract, the owners of Taoro paid his compensation with adjacent lands and the hotel cutlery with the initials HT. Starting from there, with that piece of land and some initials on forks, knives, and spoons that served to name his new establishment, began the history of another representative place in Puerto de la Cruz, Hotel Tigaiga.
In 1945, after the Great War in Europe, the Canary Islands Economic Command acquired 70 percent of the building’s shares, and unable to find a buyer, ended up ceding its part to the Cabildo of Tenerife. Five years later, the island Corporation granted the concession in the form of leasing the property to United Hotels (Husa) until the end of 1976. The contract was finally terminated in 1975, and in 1979, the Cabildo reconverted the building’s use to allow its operation as a casino until 2006 when the gaming room was moved to Lago Martínez.
With the arrival of Carlos Alonso to the presidency of the Cabildo, the search for solutions to relaunch this flagship of tourism in Spain truly resumed. Finding investors interested in exploiting the great dinosaur was not an easy task. After several tenders that went unanswered, the Cabildo did not give up and decided to substantially improve the tender conditions with a significant contribution of 15 million that made the investment much more attractive. In May 2019, it was finally awarded to the company Tropical Turística Canaria (TTC) for a period of 60 years. The expert committee report, responsible for the analysis and evaluation of the proposals, assessed aspects such as the technical and architectural proposal of the rehabilitation draft, building and functional solutions, as well as sustainable management measures.
The future Gran Hotel Taoro, now operating under the brand My Way Hotels & Resort, will feature 199 rooms and suites, two restaurants, one under the direction of chef Erlantz Gorostiza, and another Japanese led by the team from Kabuki restaurant at the Abama hotel awarded a Michelin star, in addition to exhibition rooms, one dedicated to Agatha Christie with an extensive collection of her novels, wellness area, and gym. The artworks that will decorate its walls remain a secret that cannot be revealed, although its CEO Gustavo Escobar, confirms that it involves a Canarian painter, as well as the participation of Merkarte, clearly committed to providing Canarian content to an infrastructure that has involved an investment of 50 million euros.
This major endeavor also includes the rehabilitation of the Congress Center, which will attract significant demand as the north of Tenerife lacks an infrastructure of these dimensions. Gustavo Escobar, with extensive experience in the hotel industry and being a local, is therefore familiar with the sentimental value of Taoro for those of us who live in this part of the island beyond its potential as a luxury establishment. As the captain chosen to bring the ship to a successful port, he is well aware of the enormous responsibility of extracting from the depths of oblivion a reference in the history of tourism in our country and, as such, returning it to society.
In this sense, he expresses his interest in generating a positive impact on the locality, both through supporting ongoing activities—like Mueca, Veranos del Taoro, or the Agatha Christie International Festival, set for next November—as well as in employment and economic development. At this point, the hotel’s general manager highlights the “positive” outcome of the recent open house days organized in Puerto de la Cruz for staff selection. “The response to this call was a complete success, with participation from over 1,200 people, from whom we will choose about 160 people to form the hotel staff,” emphasizes Gustavo Escobar.
The people who will eventually form the crew of the Gran Hotel Taoro, which is expected to open in the coming months, embark on an exciting journey that will involve introducing guests to the “authentic island of Tenerife” as they define it through a concept they have dubbed X-plora, which involves bringing the essence of this island closer to the visitor. An essence that in the case of Puerto de la Cruz involves that amicable relationship that it has always maintained with tourists, who feel at home here, with customs that we have even made ours, creating an enriching cultural exchange.
But the honor that Puerto de la Cruz holds as Spain’s first tourist city does not guarantee us the future nor does it entitle us to any privilege. On the contrary, it should raise our level of self-demand to maintain the appeal that attracted those distinguished visitors. Therefore, I believe we should not miss the expansive wave of excellence that the opening of Taoro will bring to enhance its entire surroundings and reconvert it into the quality destination it once was.
I conclude the report by lifting my gaze and contemplating the evolution of the works one more day. I assure you that from home, the view these months has been at times concerning. My scarce, if not nonexistent, knowledge in architecture led me at times to fear for the stability of what at first glance seemed just the skeleton of what was once this magnificent building. But today I finally breathe easy because I see it once again, imposing, regal, majestic, waiting from its vantage point for its definitive opportunity.
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