They avoid the ruin of three large houses in the north of Tenerife

The north of Tenerife save three jewels of its architectural heritage from safe ruin. The Town Halls of San Juan de la Rambla, La Victoria de Acentejo and Buenavista del Norte They have acquired three emblematic mansions and are now promoting their rehabilitation, with the financial support of the Tourism area of ​​the Government of the Canary Islands, which is already insured for two of the three projects. The three consistories have invested more than 700,000 euros in the acquisition of these properties, whose state of conservation was or is very worrying. The Victorian project began to be forged more than ten years ago, the ramblera purchase was completed at the end of 2020 and the Buenavista del Norte City Council just announced the acquisition just a few days ago.

The municipal intervention avoided the ruin of the House of Dean Calzadilla, in La Victoria de Acentejo, and will also save the Delgado Oramas House, in San Juan de la Rambla, and the House of Don Nicolás Díaz Dorta, in the town of Buenavista del Norte. These are buildings of heritage and historical value, which are part of the local catalogs of homes to be protected. The House of the Dean and the Casona Delgado Oramas will have a tourist and educational use. The two northern municipalities have opted to turn them into small emblematic hotels that, in the Victorian town, will be the first in the town. The ramblero project, which is the most advanced, proposes a small school hotel in the historic center. In Buenavista, once the purchase for 250,000 euros was completed, they have begun to negotiate with the area of ​​Historical Heritage of the Canarian Government to rehabilitate the property and give it a new public use yet to be defined. At the moment the location of exhibition and training rooms, an informational space on the municipality and its history, or administrative offices are being considered.

The total investment in these three projects is currently around 2.6 million euros, but it is expected that it may exceed 3 million euros when the financing for Buenavista del Norte, provided that the efforts undertaken by the government group of CC and Yes You Can with the regional administration.

The House of Dean Calzadilla dates from century XVIII. It was the family residence of Don Nicolás de Calzadilla, who was born in La Victoria de Acentejo and was dean of the Santa Iglesia Catedral de Canarias. It is a building of 500 square meters of surface, acquired in several lots. It is divided into two floors that have a central corridor that houses rooms on both sides. It also has ethnographic elements and outdoor spaces such as patios, gardens, rooftops, a cistern and an era.

The Casona Delgado Oramas It is a property of third quarter of the 18th century, built by Antonio Lorenzo Oramas de Saá (1732-1815). For the council, this property is “one of the architectural jewels” of the historic center and for this reason it was declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) in 1993. Saving it was a priority objective for the local government since 2012.

The House of Don Nicolás Díaz Dorta It was acquired by the Buenavista del Norte City Council on October 20. Although it has not been possible to determine its year of construction exactly, the typology and analysis of the current building set it in the decade between 1860 and 1870, in the 19th century. The technicians point out that «in the building you can see the heritage that the romantic classicism of previous decades left in the architectural fabric of the Canary Islands. It is a rectangular configuration screen with a rational compositional scheme in terms of the distribution of its openings, both due to the axis arrangement and the regularity of its size. It is perceptible how the four lower access bays to the lower rooms correspond to the upper floor with four door-windows of the same configuration ».

It is worth highlighting the use of wrought iron railings for the windowsills of the balconies and stonework. “It is perhaps this element that gives a distinctive note to the property, since the stonemasons developed interesting work for the overhangs of the windows-balconies, as well as the double cornice”, details the technical report.

With a budget of 1.6 million, the project the Delgado Oramas House it will be the first to run. The technical document foresees that each floor is adapted to the different needs of the hotel, without major alterations to the structure: the basement will be a warehouse; the ground floor will house the common areas for lodging, such as the dining room, reception, a garden, a small swimming pool and a tourist information area; Most of the rooms would be on the first floor, all doubles, and on the top floor there would be space for two special rooms with a terrace. When the financing is obtained, the estimated term of execution of the works, which will include the total renovation of the electrical network and the plumbing, is 24 months.

The house has an area of ​​almost 600 square meters, a small central patio, a roof terrace and a backyard with gardens. It houses several glazed galleries, its roofs are made of tile and the floors alternate the stone slabs of the ground floor, and of one of the galleries, with the tea wood of the upper floors. One of the most attractive rooms is the large living room on the first floor, connected to the dilapidated balcony on the main façade, where a spectacular wooden ceiling is preserved. The staircase and the old kitchen are other of the most emblematic elements.

The Ramblero City Council already had, since February 2020, a project to rehabilitate the house to turn it into a school hotel. The total cost of these works amounts to 1.6 million euros and the first intention of the council was to request funding from the Government of Spain, through the Ministry of development. It had already been tried in 2019, but it was finally achieved in 2021 with funding from the Government of the Canary Islands, which considers that this action “is a priority for the improvement of the tourist image, protection and conservation of the heritage of the municipality of San Juan de la Rambla” .

After more than a decade of negotiations, the City Council of La Victoria has also recently managed to seal an agreement with the Government of the Canary Islands to unblock this project for the recovery of the historic property of Dean Calzadilla, with the aim of turning it into an emblematic hotel, which would contribute the first hotel beds in local history. The agreement was finalized during the meeting held at the end of October between the mayor, Juan Antonio Garcia, and the general director of Tourism Infrastructure of the regional government, Fernando Miñarro. The regional administration will contribute 400,000 euros and the council, 170,000 euros more. The forecast is that the works can be tendered in early 2022.