Culture and History
The holiday island of Tenerife has much to offer the cultural tourist.
History, architecture and tradition combine to provide a rich backdrop for the holiday sightseer in Tenerife.
History of Tenerife
church in la laguna
Like the rest of the Canary Islands, Tenerife is also a son of Pluton. While the volcanic development of the eastern islands started more than 20 Million years ago, the oldest mountain ranges of Tenerife arose from the Atlantic much later (about 8 to 12 Million years ago).
At least 3 Million years ago it was believed that there were 3 islands within the Anaga, Teno and Valle San Lorenzo mountain ranges. In a tremendous volcanic process the old central volcano and the great mountain range (Cumbre Dorsal) melted together into what we know today as Tenerife.
Presumably the top of the volcano did not explode but collapsed in it's own crater and is now one of the greatest collapsed craters of the world (Las Cañadas). This oval crater is, at it's longest distance, about 17Km long.
500,000 years ago the last stage of volcanic activity in Tenerife took place. The 'Pico Viejo' (old peak) erupted first and some time later the higher 'Pico del Teide'. This last one has on it's top a sulphur coat surrounding it. The last volcano eruption in Tenerife happened near the village of Santiago del Teide in 1909.
Saint Brendan and the Ghost Island
The Canaries are seven islands... but an eigth isle is still searched for! It is the ghost island, the mysterious one, the island of San Borondón. San Borondón is the Canarian name of Saint Brendan or Saint Brandan of Clonfert (480-576 d.c.), an Irish monk who plays the lead in one of the most famous legends of the Celtic culture: the voyage of Saint Brendan or Brandan to the Promised Land of the Saints, the Islands of Happiness and Fortune.
The Irish poem tells that Brendan was a monk of Tralee, County Kerry. He was an ordained priest in the year 512 d.c.. He sailed with 14 other monks on a small vessel which went far away in the Atlantic Ocean. The legend tells about their adventures, how they took with them along their voyage three other monks, their encounter with fire-hurling demons, floating crystal columns and monsterous creatures as large as an island
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"Let the Guanche drums resound and the conch shells blow,
for the mysterious island is appearing in the midst of the waves;
here comes San Borondón, showing up in the mist like a queen with the surf as suite..."
"San Borondón", Cabrera/Santamaría
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When the Canaries were conquered throughout the 15th century, stories were insistently told about an eigth island which sometimes was seen to the West of La Palma, El Hierro and La Gomera. When sailors tried to reach it and approached to its shores, mountains and valleys, the island was covered by mist and vanished. The island was obviously identified as mythical Saint Brendan's whale-island, and was called "San Borondón" in the Canary Islands.
The persistence of this legend in the islands' folklore is amazing. San Borondón is still alive in the peoples imagination. There is probably no one islander of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera or El Hierro who, at sometime, has not looked from the mountains of their island into the sea, searching the lost island of San Borondón in the western horizon where the sun sinks in the cobalt-blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean.