By Domingo Medina.| The historian Mrs. Manuela Marrero defined the end of this street in the following way: “The convent of San Agustín borders the lagoon at the back. It is in everyone’s memory to dedicate the convent to higher studies, with teaching to train future monks, doctors, lawyers…, that is, to create a university. This street ends at the lagoon, which connects with the dry cell in the Plaza de Santa María.” (Plaza de La Concepción).
In 1837 the Engineer Command drained the water and in 1839 the lagoon had already been drained, according to the words of geologist Sabino Berthelot. The Irish writer Olivia Stone wrote in 1887 that, although the lagoon had completely disappeared, it reappeared in the rainy season as a swampy area. The street that borders the convent of San Agustín, called El Remojo (today, Rodríguez Moure) existed in 1768, a date that shows that the lagoon had already disappeared in that area.
By Royal Order of August 21, 1846, the Institute of Second Education of the Canary Islands was established in the building that was the headquarters of the convent of San Agustín and later, until 1845, housed the Literary University of San Fernando, the suppression of this led led to the creation of the Provincial Institute, also inheriting the funds and the library. There was competition between La Laguna, founded on its traditional rights, and Santa Cruz, which argued for its capital status. For some time the Institute also had a College for Boarding Students, inaugurated on May 21, 1866, whose accommodation was established in the Casa de Torres, today Hotel Aguere.
At the end of the 20th century, the name of the institute was changed in honor of its director from 1901 to 1925, Mr. Adolfo Cabrera Pinto. Dear professor and renowned defender of education in Tenerife, he defended and asked King Alfonso the Literary University of San Fernando.
The plaza outside the institute is named after Guillermo Rancés (lawyer, politician and journalist) who was appointed undersecretary of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, and in 1893, undersecretary of the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, occupying the interim position of the ministry. a great defender of the refoundation of the University of La Laguna.
This institute, the only one that existed until 1916, had different personalities as students: Don Benito Pérez Galdós, Don Tomás Morales, Don Benito Pérez Armas, Don Fernando de León y Castillo, Don Ramón Gil Roldán, Don Blas Pérez, Don Juan Cabrera Felipe , Mrs. María Rosa Alonso and a long etcetera.
In 1910 he visited La Laguna and toured the cloister of the institute, Don Miguel de Unamuno said: It is a corner of singular calm, a haven of stillness that invites study. The patio is charming.
The building has two cloisters, the main one is a magnificent example of 16th century architecture. The upper gallery has stone columns, with capitals of various shapes that support the roof that with a single water falls towards the garden, where a meteorological station is located. This first cloister, the main one, was known as the “patio of the orange trees”, and the second, the “patio of the cypresses”.
At number 63 of this street, on the left side as you go up, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party was founded in La Laguna, and its first president was the lawyer Alonso Suárez Melián since June 5, 1931, where the Assembly was held. Constituent of said Party, prior to the approval of the Statutes of the Civil Governor of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
On the same side of the street is the 18th century Casa Olivera. It is a building built on a large plot, which determines an extensive façade developed on three floors, the third being a barn, as was traditional in buildings of that time, it opens to the outside through a narrow and long balcony. . It was owned by the dean of the Holy Cathedral Church of La Laguna, Don Luis Palahí Hidalgo de Quintana.
Almost at the end of this street was the first Social Security clinic that served all members of the La Laguna municipality. It would be very long to mention all the health workers who carried out their work over the years in difficult circumstances in this healthcare center. Today, that the city has fourteen health units and a university hospital, we will cite, as a tribute, representing the entire group, the following: Don Escolásico Aguiar, Don Enrique González, Dona Luchy Cabrera, Don Francisco Túbal, Don Roberto and Mrs. Amparo Ucelay, Mr. Francisco Cruz, Mr. Francisco Martínez Calvo…
In the building before the clinic, Casa Peter sold hot dogs since 1968, a business introduced for the first time in La Laguna by the Dane Jorge Peter Larsen.
The street ends at the meeting, on the left side, with the current Ascanio y Nieves street, known as La Rosada, a name that comes from its original La Rosa. And on the right side with the Plaza de la Junta Suprema, formerly Plaza de Los Bolos and popularly known as Plaza de Las Flores.
Currently this street is considered one of the most beautiful in Spain, as it has been cataloged not only by visitors but also by tourist organizations and media specialized in issues of historical heritage and tourism.
