Santo Domingo Monastery - La Laguna

The Old Monastery of Santo Domingo, dating from the 16th century , is one of the heritage monuments of La Laguna, as a foundation of the Dominican order, as an educational center and later, after the confiscation processes, as a seminary.

Throughout history, the building has had various functions : monastery and church , educational center, boarding school , first meteorological station and first provincial library . During the Civil War it was a prison for the Spanish Falange and afterwards a soup kitchen.

The building underwent renovations and additions after its decommissioning in 1836 . In 1926, architect Pelayo López built new pavilions with a concrete structure on the old monastery. Between 1993 and 1997 the government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo of Tenerife took care of the restoration . Only the church remains to be restored, as a fire on June 2, 1964 left the building in a ruinous state.

Inside, the building has one of the best Renaissance cloisters in the Canary Islands . The two floors are a combination of stone and wood. On the ground floor, each side of the courtyard has seven Tuscan-style red stone columns and wooden bases. In the basement there are burial vaults of monks and illustrious people from La Laguna who contributed to the maintenance of the monastery in their time. The remains of the historian Juan Núñez de la Peña are also located in the church.

Six chapels were built around the monastery, founded by families, brotherhoods and corporations from the city. Some remains can still be seen today, such as the Italian-inspired murals that decorate the walls, but these spaces were used for other purposes after the church confiscation.

Willem Vandenameele