Puerto de la Cruz

Before the conquest the area belonged to Taoro, one of the Guanche kingdoms of Tenerife, and its people lived in the natural caves of the Martiánez cliffs. By 1502 there was port activity on this coast, with the settlement dependent on La Orotava up the valley, and in 1603 a site was set aside for a church and square. The fishing village grew with trade: sugar gave way to wine, whose export boomed from the second half of the 16th century, and when an eruption destroyed the port of Garachico in 1706 this became the most important port on the island.

The townspeople wanted their own government early. A royal decree of Philip IV in 1651 let them appoint a head of the village, a council was elected in 1772, and in 1808 the town, until then known as Puerto de La Orotava, won full independence from La Orotava and took its present name.

The 19th century brought scientists and writers, drawn by the climate and plants of the Orotava Valley — Alexander von Humboldt among them — and in 1886 the archipelago's first sanatorium for sick visitors opened here, beginning tourism in the Canaries. Old family houses were turned into the first hotels, and a British colony settled. Mass tourism arrived in the 1950s and has driven the economy ever since. In 1983 the town's ecological film festival saw the announcement of the Tenerife Manifesto, a precursor of political ecology in Spain.

The town's identity is split between its old port and its resort. Around Plaza del Charco and the harbour, fishermen still land their catch, and the Fiestas del Carmen in July are their festival: the images of the Virgen del Carmen and San Telmo are carried by fishermen and taken out on a procession by sea, the fishermen sing the Salve Reina de los Mares, and people jump into the harbour to cool off. More than 30,000 people come from across the islands, making it the most crowded sea procession of the Virgen del Carmen in the Canaries. The night before, the Sardinada brings crowds to San Telmo beach for grilled sardines and dancing.

Carnival is the other high point, with the election of a queen, a grand parade and the burial of the sardine, when a giant sardine is 'blessed' by a mock bishop, set alight by the waterfront and mourned by men in drag. A delegation from Düsseldorf, the town's German twin, often joins in.

The British left a lasting mark: the Anglican church of All Saints in the Taoro park, the oldest Anglican cemetery in the Canaries, and gardens such as Sitio Litre, where Agatha Christie stayed. César Manrique reshaped the seafront with Lago Martiánez and Playa Jardín, and the Castillo de San Felipe has hosted a young artists' competition every year since 1993.

About 31,100 people lived in the municipality in 2025. It is the smallest municipality on Tenerife, only about 8.7 square kilometres, and in 2014 it was the most densely populated on the island. With neighbouring La Orotava and Los Realejos it forms the metropolitan area of the Orotava Valley, home to about 112,000 people.

Tourism is by far the largest part of the economy, with large hotels visible across the skyline. The visitors change with the seasons: mostly older northern European couples in winter, especially at Christmas and New Year, and Spanish families in August, when the mainland is too hot. Compared with resorts such as Playa de las Américas, the town draws more mature couples.

Behind the seafront, everyday life carries on in the old streets of the centre and La Ranilla, at the harbour where boats are lifted in and out by crane, and in the residential districts that climb the slopes of the valley.

The town eats the cooking of the Canaries. Papas arrugadas, 'wrinkly potatoes', are small unskinned potatoes boiled in salt water and served with mojo, the sauce of oil, garlic, vinegar, peppers and spices that comes red with meat — mojo picón in its spicy form — or green with fish. Gofio, a flour of roasted grain that was the islanders' staple for centuries, is stirred with fish broth and onion to make escaldón and used in desserts such as pella de gofio.

Fish is central in an old fishing port. Sancocho canario is boiled fish with potatoes, sweet potatoes, gofio and mojo, and fish soups use local species such as grouper, dentex and wreckfish. On the evening of 29 November, when the town's children 'run the cacharro', people traditionally eat salted fish with mojo and gofio, and roasted chestnuts, and the Sardinada on the eve of the Carmen festival is a feast of grilled sardines. Meat dishes include puchero canario, a meat-rich soup, and conejo en salmorejo, rabbit marinated in a coriander sauce; bienmesabe, a paste of almonds, honey and sugar, is a classic dessert.

The Orotava Valley has long made wine — the north of Tenerife's wines were praised as early as the 16th century, when Shakespeare's characters mentioned them — and the wine trade once built the town. The municipal market, El Tejar, sells local produce.