He old spa of the capital of Tenerife will come to life again 32 years later of its definitive closure, although this time converted into health center for Anaga in order to provide coverage to the entire area currently served by the House of the Sea.
This was decided yesterday by the plenary session of the Canary Islands Parliament by unanimously supporting the Non-Law Proposition (PNL) presented by the nationalist deputy and mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez. A project that finally has a specific item in the budgets of the Autonomous Community for 2024 of 600,000 euros.
Bermúdez expressed his satisfaction that the current regional Executive has finally contemplated this amount in the regional budgets for 2024, which will allow the rehabilitation project of the Spa to begin for its future transformation into a health center.
The deputy and also mayor of the municipality in which this historic building with deep emotional meaning for the citizens is located regretted that the previous executives did not make this project a priority, especially since it is an “emblematic building for Santa Cruz, for Tenerife, for the province and for the Archipelago because it was a meeting and leisure point for people coming from all the islands and from outside them,” Bermúdez added.
In this sense, he highlighted the need to bring to the Chamber “initiatives like this, that recover and promote good use of the landmark and historical buildings on each of the islands and that allow us to return them to the citizens, giving them effective use.” and adapted to current needs.”
The mayor recalled, during his defense before the plenary session of the PNL, that the project to remodel and give social and health use to the Spa has been one of the main objectives of the Canary Coalition. In 2019, the CC-PP municipal government, headed by Bermúdez himself, brought to plenary session a motion, which was approved, on the future uses of the space, among which it was agreed that it would be a health center, supported by groups and associations. grouped in the collective Speak, Together for San Andrés and for the Tagoror of the Anaga District.
Furthermore, this municipal motion urged the Government of the Canary Islands, current owner of the property since 2013, when it was transferred by the State, to comply with its commitment to undertake the works to reinforce the facilities to enable its rehabilitation and future uses. .
After the unanimous approval of this motion and the inclusion of the project in the regional budgets for 2024, “one more step is taken on the path of recovering a historic property and returning it to the citizens, for whose well-being it was designed, giving it an effective and adapted use.” to current needs,” Bermúdez stressed.
Closing in 1992
The spa closed its doors in 1992 and, since then, the different municipal governments have tried, without success, to commit the necessary financing from the different administrations to rehabilitate and give the building an appropriate use consistent with the development and current needs. of the city and the municipality.
Currently, the old spa is attached to the Ministry of Health, whose officials expressed in the last Legislature their intention to install the future Anaga Health Center in the building, which is currently located in the facilities of what was once the House. from sea.
For his part, the first deputy mayor of the capital and Councilor for Public Services, Carlos Tarife, stated at the end of the vote in the regional Chamber of the PNL for the recovery of the Spa building, that “we are in luck because Parliament has supported this CC proposal that we have also supported from the PP, with the aim that this landmark building in the capital has a future and is rehabilitated.”
Tarife indicated that “the Government has included an amendment in the budgets of the Autonomous Community of 600,000 euros to convert this property into a health center for Anaga and for this reason I congratulate Mayor Bermúdez for carrying out this initiative.”
The councilor added that “it is worth remembering that we were the only party in the electoral campaign that promised that this project was going to be fought, while others could not do so due to the time they had been governing and others could not do so because they wasted the four years of the Pact of Flowers, where not a single stone was moved in favor of the spa.”
“Now what we have to do is for the Government of the Canary Islands to do its homework, approve the amendment and get to work on this project to rehabilitate the Santa Cruz Spa,” he concluded.
unique building
The old spa of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a unique building for many reasons. It is an example of rationalist architecture from the 1930s, which is today in the municipal catalog of protected assets and is, in addition, a piece of the city’s history that must be preserved for future generations.
It was promoted at the end of the 1920s by Mayor García Sanabria for the enjoyment of the city and, for decades, it was the most cutting-edge leisure center in the capital and the Island, it housed the first public swimming pool and was the cradle of Olympic swimming. .
It was commissioned to Domingo Pisaca, who decided to design it following the Rationalist current that was beginning to emerge in Europe, making it an example of advanced architecture for the time and for the country.
