Castillo de San Cristóbal

The Castle of San Cristóbal (Spanish: Castillo de San Cristóbal) in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) was the first fortification of significance on the island of Tenerife and the main defensive building on Santa Cruz Bay. The central Castle Street is named after this fort.

Under the administration of Gov. Álvarez de Fonseca, construction began in 1575 but it was the January 20, 1577 when it entered service. The castle was demolished in 1928 to construct the Plaza de España, with the remains of the castle buried under it for centuries. On June 28, 2006, during the refurbishment of the Plaza of Spain, some remains were later found to belong to the castle. At that time precautionary and protective measures were taken in order to ensure the preservation of the find.

There remain only a few walls of the original building on display in a tunnel under the Plaza de España. Today, the castle is a museum which houses the famous "Cañón Tigre" (Tiger Cannon), which shot a musketball to Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson's right arm, which fractured his humerus bone in multiple places on July 25, 1797, the reason why he had his arm amputated.

Text adapted from “Castle of San Cristóbal (Santa Cruz de Tenerife)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Castillo de San Cristóbal ranks #2,485 of 3,691 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #100 of the 180 mapped in Spain. Founded 1575, it is older than 40% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 307 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗