The consolidation works of the ruins of the old church of San Agustín, in the historic center of La Laguna, are expected to begin this January. This was announced by the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, in a recent interview with DIARIO DE AVISOS, in which he stated that “in January we will be working on the works, everything is already accepted by the Governing Board and the own company, and the technical direction that was missing is also already guaranteed ”.
In fact, the contract was recently signed with the winning company, the last administrative step, and now the deadline to start the work is one month, that is, throughout this January.
The local councilor stressed that, after its restoration, this old church will become “one of the most important outdoor cultural settings in the entire Canary Islands.”
The works were awarded in August 2020, pending some procedures that are finalized with this last step. In this first phase we want to consolidate its structure to ensure its maintenance and that it can be visited when the works are finished, which will mean an investment of 845,209 euros and an execution period of about eight months, said the mayor, so he foresees that by the end of next summer “it may already be inaugurated.”
The works will consist, fundamentally, of giving solidity to the ruin from the area of the choir of the old church to the Plaza Guillermo Rancés, without actually intervening in the adjoining building of the Bethlemites.
The old church of San Agustín was left in ruins after the fire that devastated the building in 1964, destroying the interior of the temple and leaving only its walls and columns standing in the heart of the city. For security reasons, the venue has been closed since then. Since 2016, in the previous term, the project has been managed so that the ruins can be visited, although in 2005 an international competition for ideas for the rehabilitation of the space was called, but the winning idea was never developed.
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The church was part of the old convent of San Agustín, whose origin can be found in a concession made by the Adelantado to two friars of the order to found a religious center under the invocation of the Holy Spirit. It was a small enclosure with an oratory located on Calle Real in the recently founded city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna.
Around 1506, the monks received new land for the construction of a church, a convent and several orchards, becoming one of the most important convents in the Archipelago. The popular and institutional contributions by the Cabildo allowed the space to be improved throughout the Old Regime (the last third of the 18th century), although decades later, as happened in the rest of the country, it was confiscated, putting a point and end to the presence of the Augustinian friars in the place, although the cult was maintained in the church until 1964, when the fire took place.
The convent, also, was a place dedicated to education and headquarters of the University of San Fernando during the Old Regime, and, since 1846, it is the seat of the Instituto de Canarias, current IES Canarias Cabrera Pinto.
The history and heritage of the church were lost when the fatal fire broke out on June 2, 1964, due to a short circuit that started a fire in the church choir and quickly spread throughout the building through the fabrics and woods of the church. ceiling that was in the temple, in a time in which there were no alarms or fire system. A large number of images were lost in the fire, such as the Ecce Homo, the Christ of Burgos or the Virgen de la Cinta, although the Virgen de la Soledad managed to save itself, which is still preserved today, as well as some tomb that it can still be seen on the original floor of the church.
