The first settlement on the territory of Santa Cruz de Tenerife appeared more than 2000 years ago. It was one of the island kingdoms of the Guanches, which is the name of the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands. This fact has enough archaeological evidence, which you can get acquainted with in museums.
The modern name of Santa Cruz is nothing but "Holy Cross". It appeared in honor of the cross of the conquistadors back at the end of the XV century. For a long time it was a small fishing village, but the geographical location did its job. Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the most important port of the closed harbor of La Laguna, so by the XVIII century the unremarkable town became the administrative center of the island, and later - the capital of the archipelago. Neither the British, nor the Danes, nor even the famous Admiral Nelson managed to capture the port. And there were many attempts - everyone wanted to own valuable trade routes. The three most important victories are still reflected on the coat of arms of Tenerife in the form of three leopards.
There are two very famous beaches near the city itself - Taganana with black volcanic sand and Las Teresitas with yellow sand. By the way, this is the only beach with yellow sand on the whole island. It is artificial, because the sand was brought here by barges from the Sahara. The whole beach strip stretches from the mountain La Esperanza, so it is easy to find an option to your liking.
