PLAZA DE LA CATEDRAL O DE LOS REMEDIOS

Formerly it was called Plaza de Santa Mar in honor of the old hermitage that was located there. Once it was replaced by the parish church, it receives the name of Plaza de Nuestra Se ora de Los Remedios , which remained until 1819 when the church acquired the category of Cathedral, which began to be known as Plaza de La Catedral . Subsequently, it was also called Fray Albino Square as a reminder of the Bishop of the Diocese for twenty years (1925-1945), until the City Council agreed in 2004 to recover the old name of Plaza de Los Remedios.

Its implementation took place in the primitive central axis of the first center drawn up with the old name of Calle de la Carrera, which serves as the axis of union of the two villages, in the place where the Council's pens , some houses of the innkeeper Campos and part of the primitive cemetery adjacent to the hermitage. The decision to place it in this location corresponded to the Adelantado, who since 1500 had planned the place as the headquarters of the main parish of the Villa. In its surroundings, the second church or hermitage of La Laguna was built, which was that of Santa Mar a de la Expectation, and later changed to the parish church of Our Lady of Remedies, so, at some point also It was called Plaza de Los Remedios. It was adorned with bananas from the Bano and had two statues, one from San Pedro and another from San Pablo, where some neighbors used to gather in lively gatherings. In 1908 a small garden with a pond that should have had a partner at the other end of the square, but whose project was abandoned was arranged in this place. Some ducks were placed in the pond, so the square was also popularly known as the ducks. The pond was removed in the last remodeling of the square in 2014 in the new urban approach of the Special Protection Plan of the Historic Center.

In the square there is a bust of Don Jos Hern ndez Amador (1877-1950), professor and lagoon poet, co-founder and first president of the Athenaeum that is on the opposite sidewalk, another bust in honor of Jos Peraza de Ayala (1903 -1988), historian and chronicler of the city, who became the first director of the Institute of Canary Studies and published the collection of Ordinances of Tenerife made in the seventeenth century by the historian Nu ez de la Pe a. found on the basis and trapezoidal backs of marble, and a bust of Bishop P rez C ceres (1892-1961), Bishop of Tenerife remembered primarily for his great charity and friendly staff. The bust is located on a square base of Canter A. In front of the square is the Athenaeum that was founded in 1906 and where the Viana theater was previously located.

The appearance of the square has varied depending on the abundant and varied works carried out in five centuries. The impulse that the area received was thanks to the construction of the parochial church that requires a wider space, so in 1550 Governor Hern n Duke estrada sent demolishing small houses next to the church to expand its entrance and facilitate the passage of processions. As it appears from the foreground of the city of 1588, the square has maintained approximately its perimeter until today.

Different water pillar projects have been documented, in order to alleviate the shortage of the Villa de Arriba, but never to be carried out. one of them consists of a pillar formed by a "giantess" with the breasts discovered by which there will be two canals of water, and two lions on the sides, according to the model of a square in Granada. It is also known that until the 18th century the square was decorated with the statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, opposite the present Athenaeum. but in spite of these small works, at the beginning of the 19th century the square was nothing more than a space located between the facade of the temple and the adjacent streets. Until that time and despite its centrality with respect to the city, it maintained a secondary position with respect to other lagoon squares, due to its small size and its low differentiation within the urban road. The situation changed when the Bishopric of Tenerife was created in 1819, so that the primitive parish was elevated to the cathedral category, then becoming unprecedentedly important. This new function of the temple forced to perform different works, both in the building and its contour.

After the intervention of the Special Protection Plan of the Historic Center, it is one of the busiest places, the scene of different religious and physical acts, largely due to its central situation with respect to the city.