By Domingo Medina.| The space occupied by the current Plaza del Doctor Olivera, on the west side of the church of La Concepción, and previously known as Plaza de La Antigua since 1808, was always one of the busiest public squares in La Laguna and with a very important business environment.
In this irregularly shaped plaza, which was the boundary area of the City and on the way to Tacoronte, neighbors Francisco Hernández, Juan González, Miguel Cámara and several others built the chapel of the Holy Cross, which was blessed on May 3, 1756. , which was also used as a morgue for the nearby parish of La Concepción.
In 1860, commissioner Francisco Calixto Domínguez planted some trees in this square and called it La Antigua, a date on which numbers and names were placed on the streets and squares with relief tiles on the facades that are still preserved. .
THE TRAM STATION
The mayor Don Antonio Díaz-Llanos (1865-1867) renovated the square by placing stone pilasters on a wall that bordered the limit of the church, on the west side, and on it an iron fence was placed, as it is. currently, although the wall, the pilasters and the fences were installed again during the remodeling of the square in the 80s of the last century. The construction works of the tram line between Santa Cruz and La Laguna, with a stop in this square, began on October 29, 1889 and ended on April 7, 1901.
With the extension of the line to Tacoronte, on July 27, 1904, the Plaza de La Antigua station became more important, for which works were carried out, and since the Santa Cruz chapel hindered the circulation of the new tram , the concessionaire of this service was authorized to set it back, so it disappeared and the company was forced to build a new one, attached to the church of La Concepción and in front of the place it previously occupied.
In the last reform of the main parish in 1972, this chapel was definitively lost. With the disappearance of the tram service on November 14, 1956, when it was going down from La Laguna, the brakes broke and it collided with a wall at the height of the Cuesta de Piedra, a young man died, and numerous people were injured, many of them. them seriously. From that moment on, the plaza housed other alternative services, such as the bus line from Santa Cruz to La Laguna. Bars and cafes, kiosks, gas stations, taxi services are installed there… Famous was, the now sadly disappeared, “Eladia cart”, where the typical lagoon rosquetes, all kinds of sweets and even “loose cigarettes” were sold.
DOCTOR OLIVERA SQUARE SIGNING
By acclamation of its people, the plenary session of the Lagunero town council, held on December 18, 1918, agreed to label La Antigua Plaza as Plaza del Doctor Olivera. Likewise, it adopted the agreement to maintain his memory by placing a plaque in the house where he was born on Herradores Street, a fact that was fulfilled by the municipal Corporation in December 2018, that is, “one hundred years” after the celebration. municipal plenary session where the agreement was made.
The latest renovation of the square is part of the Special Plan for the Protection of the Historic Center of La Laguna, which pedestrianized the nearby streets and the square itself in its entirety. Several adjacent streets historically closely linked to the City lead into it, such as El Tizón, San Antonio and Las Candilas, where the procession of Christ and the Virgin of Candelaria, clergy and faithful entered through San Fructuoso street, where the Laguneros received the procession with torches, axes, firebrands and candles.
Because of this way of receiving the Virgin as many times as she entered this street, La Laguna gave the name Las Candilas to this road, which runs between Doctor Olivera Square and until its meeting with 6 de Diciembre Street.
Once autumn has entered, when the cold begins to be felt in the City, the first chestnut stands are set up in this square, an ancient tradition that still continues. Don Manuel Esteban Olivera y Olivera was born in La Laguna in 1844. He studied high school at the General and Technical Institute of the Canary Islands, on San Agustín street in La Laguna. He studied medicine in Madrid, where he graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1868. In Paris he worked in several hospitals and prepared his doctoral thesis. Later he moved back to Madrid, where he earned his doctorate in Medicine.
He returned to his hometown, taking over the management of the Dolores Hospital. He worked until his death, on December 12, 1918, in his house at 99 Herradores Street, a victim of the epidemic sadly known as “the Spanish flu”, after treating several neighbors, he became infected while assisting one of them in the road to Las Gavias, dying a few days later, at the age of 73, “in the line of duty”, as stated on the plaque placed on the façade of his home by the Hon. La Laguna City Council on December 12, 2018.
