This narrow alley begins in Plaza del Adelantado and ends in Plaza de Los Remedios, right next to one of the side entrances to the Cathedral. This currently cobbled street was paved in 1758 and became one of the most unique in the city.
This old alley was called Hunting, because it was the place where hunters sold the meat of the game they hunted. According to the Ordinances of Tenerife: “On October 19, 1554, the Lords of Justice and Regiment, before Juan Lope de Asoca, notary of the Council, ordered that game be sold publicly on Calle de la Caza, or in the Plaza de los Remedios. ”. Labeled with the name of Deán Palahí since 1930, in recognition of the great work carried out by the dean, in his capacity as administrator of the rehabilitation works of the cathedral temple, completed in 1913. The San Cristóbal de La Laguna City Council took the agreement to label this street with the name of Deán Palahí, in reference to the priest Don Luis Palahí Hidalgo de Quintana.
IT WAS ALSO KNOWN AS ALLEY OF THE DOMINICAN NUNS
In its first section, completely paved, we find on its left side the cloistered convent of Santa Catalina de Siena, attended by the nuns of the Order of Preachers. For this reason, in 1808 in the records it appears under the name of Callejón de las Monjas Dominicas. Precisely through this wall, at the end of 1651, at the age of 33, the nobleman Jerónimo Grimón y Rojas climbed and kidnapped the professed nun Sister Úrsula de San Pedro from this convent.
A museum with two rooms, one of Sacred Art and the other of Contemporary Art, was recently inaugurated on the side facing this alley, although it remains closed. These rooms are added to the existing one dedicated to Sister María de Jesús.
On the right side is the side of the Nava Palace and at the end of this section of the street, forming the corner with Viana, was the famous Dos y Una food house (two parts of potatoes and one of meat in sauce). This site was a must-see mainly for students, especially when the cold lagoon gave no respite and the economy was scarce. This tavern, which was initially owned by Don Narciso Perera, who moved to Núñez de la Peña Street, later, and until his disappearance, was run by Don Pancho and his son Gustavo.
ILLUSTRIOUS PRIESTS LIVED ON THIS STREET
Don Antonio Pereyra Pacheco y Ruiz, priest and writer, lived in house number 15 in 1824 (La Laguna 1790-Tegueste 1858). His work is made up of manuscripts and printed papers, highlighting Uses and Customs of the City of La Laguna, Description of the Lanzarote Volcano that he burst in 1824, History of Tegueste…
In the second section of the street and in a two-story house with a garden, on the corner of Viana, the journalist Domingo García González (Domingo Laguna), director of the Canarias Gráfica magazine, author of several books and editor of Ecos de Sociedad in the Tenerife newspapers El Día, La Tarde and Diario de Avisos.
Before reaching its meeting with Tabares de Cala, on the left side, lived the priest, a native of La Palma (May 14, 1906), Don Luis Van De Walle y Carballo, professor and historian, canon of the Cathedral Chapter of La Laguna and parish priest of Los Remedios, adopted son of Breña Alta (1949), where he was parish priest.
At number 9 of the street, on April 22, 1899, the La Laguna Casino was founded, its first president being Mr. Miguel Renshaw De Orea y Peroso, who later moved to Obispo Rey Redondo street (La Carrera street ).
In the house on the corner of Tabares de Cala, on the right side, the merchant Don Andrés Fernández installed a grocery store and wholesale sale of wines imported from the peninsula, whose winery was installed in the Casa de los Capitanes (current headquarters of the Laguna mayor’s office and tourist office). From there, a cart pulled by a mule supplied the wine barrels to its clients, which were the Lagunera taverns, mainly the one known as La Oficina, owned by Don Ramón Herrera, among others.
Before the end of the street, on the right side, the priest Don Vicente Cruz Gil lived until his death, on Friday, September 24, 2023, at the age of 91. Born in the neighborhood of San Juan, in La Laguna, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Pérez Cáceres, on May 30, 1954. He graduated in Dogmatic Theology from the Gregorian University of Rome. Penitentiary Canon. He held different positions in the Diocese, including vice director of the Diocesan Seminary, when more than 200 seminarians were studying ecclesiastical studies, for this reason he resigned to become the first parish priest of the then hermitage of San Juan, very close to the place where he was born, erected in parish in 1963. He was parish priest in Breña Baja (La Palma), where the town council honored him by labeling one of the streets with his name. He was also appointed in 1985, parish priest of Santo Domingo de Guzmán in La Laguna.
Almost at the end of the street, lived Father Adán, a priest born in 1926 in Puerto de La Cruz, although he spent his childhood in Icod de los Vinos, until he entered the Lagunero Seminary, in whose city he lived for more than seventy years. He carried out extensive apostolic and social work, largely accepted by each and every one of those who knew him.
Possessor of important musical knowledge and a powerful voice, he was a psalmist of the Cathedral and later a canon of the same. He created and directed the Palestrina choir, with Quique Martín, Elfidio Alonso, Rafael Perera, Julio Fajardo, Juan Oliva and Domingo Luis Martín. He was director of the La Laguna University Choir, the first mixed university choir and the Cepsa choir.
Founder of the Flagellation Brotherhood. Spiritual director and founder of the La Colina Clinic. For four seasons he was president of the Canarias de Baloncesto, making the Lagunero club compete in the highest Spanish league on the courts of that school, where he was also a religion teacher.
WHO WAS DEAN PALAHÍ?
Don Luis Palahí Hidalgo de Quintana, priest from Gerona, born in 1852. Graduate in Theology. Dean of the Holy Cathedral Church of La Laguna. Ecclesiastical Provider. Vicar General and administrator of the rehabilitation works of the Laguna Cathedral, completed in 1913. Senior Slave of the Holy Christ of La Laguna. Adopted Son of the City, where he died in 1916 in his house, the house known as Casa Olivera from the 18th century, on San Agustín Street.
