Step through the gate at Sitio Litre and the busy streets of Puerto de la Cruz soon feel far away. The water-lily pond and koi carp pond sit side by side; beyond the ponds lie lawns, an Agatha Christie area and an art gallery. From there, a ramp or steps lead to more of the READ MORE
Category: History
Marianne North in Puerto de la Cruz: The Garden She Painted
Imagine opening a window above a garden, with flowers close enough to paint and Mount Teide beyond the roofs of Puerto de la Cruz. In 1875, the travelling artist Marianne North made a home for several weeks at Sitio Litre. She painted its dragon tree, its planting and the wider Tenerife landscape. The garden is READ MORE
Alexander von Humboldt in Puerto de la Cruz: Teide and Sitio Litre
On the evening before St John’s Day in 1799, Alexander von Humboldt stood in Mr Little’s garden above the old port of Puerto de la Cruz. He could see Teide, the coast and the Atlantic, while midsummer fires appeared on the mountain slopes. That garden is today’s Sitio Litre. Humboldt’s stop on Tenerife lasted only READ MORE
Charles Piazzi Smyth in Tenerife: The Astronomer Who Went Above the Clouds
In 1856, Charles Piazzi Smyth came to Tenerife with a question: would a telescope see more clearly above the clouds? His journey connected the gardens of Sitio Litre in Puerto de la Cruz with temporary observing stations high on Guajara and the slopes of Teide. He and his wife, Jessie Duncan, brought back observations, drawings READ MORE
The History of Bananas in Tenerife and Puerto de la Cruz
Look beyond the seafront of Puerto de la Cruz and you can still find broad banana leaves along the paths towards El Bollullo. They are a reminder of an industry that reshaped the Orotava Valley and the town below it. A garden experiment, water lifted from a cliff, busy packing houses and fruit boats waiting READ MORE
Agatha Christie in Puerto de la Cruz: The 1927 Visit and the Story It Inspired
In 1927, Agatha Christie came to Puerto de la Cruz with her young daughter Rosalind and her companion and secretary Charlotte Fischer. She stayed at the Gran Hotel Taoro, and the family account at Sitio Litre remembers her visiting its garden. The cliffs and a house at La Paz left their mark on The Man READ MORE
Alfred Diston: The Artist and Naturalist Who Made Puerto de la Cruz His Home
Alfred Diston arrived in Puerto de la Cruz as a young British wine merchant in 1810 and spent much of the next half-century looking closely at his adopted home. He drew the people he met, their clothes, the coast and the gardens; he kept notes on the island's life and plants. His story connects Sitio READ MORE
Yeoward Brothers and El Penitente in Puerto de la Cruz
At El Penitente, beside Puerto de la Cruz’s harbour, banana crates once moved from a packing house towards ships bound for Britain. The building has gone, but the waterfront still tells the story of Yeoward Brothers: a Liverpool shipping firm, the people who grew and packed the fruit, and the pier that connected the Orotava READ MORE
Iglesia de San Francisco and Puerto de la Cruz’s Historic Chapels
A few steps from the bustle of Calle Quintana, the little garden at Plaza del Doctor Víctor Pérez gives you a good place to stop and look at Iglesia de San Francisco. Two neighbouring doorways hint that the church has more than one story. One belonged to the older Ermita de San Juan Bautista, a READ MORE
From Finca to Fruit Ship: Banana Packing in Puerto de la Cruz
Before a banana from the Orotava Valley could leave Tenerife, it had to travel from the grove to a packing store, then through the streets of Puerto de la Cruz to the harbour. Growers, packers, drivers and boat crews all played a part. The old empaquetados may have disappeared from many familiar corners of town, READ MORE