Icod de los Vinos

Oral tradition recorded by the friar Alonso de Espinosa names Icod as the site of the island's first human settlement, and archaeology backs this up: the Cueva de los Guanches, within the municipality, has produced the oldest dates yet found in the Canaries, reaching back to around the first century BC. The cave was traditionally said to be the home of the mencey, the Guanche chieftain of Icod. Nearby, at Las Cuevas de Don Gaspar, charred seeds of wheat, barley and broad beans have been found — evidence that the Guanche people were farming Tenerife long before the Spanish conquest.

Early settlers concentrated around the Las Angustias area, drawn by the stream running year-round through the Barranco de Caforiño, which locals simply called the river of Icod. After the conquest, Alonso Fernández de Lugo — Tenerife's conqueror — built a sugar mill nearby, turning Icod into one of the island's main sugar producers and a significant economic centre alongside Garachico, La Laguna and La Orotava.

Around 1500 a small chapel was built in honour of San Marcos Evangelista, whose image, according to tradition, appeared on the beach of San Marcos shortly after the conquest. By 1515, with the population growing, the chapel was raised to the rank of parish church, and from 1520 the town had a royal mayor.

On 2 May 1798, a fire started in the cell of a Bernardine nun who had left embers burning. Within two and a half hours it destroyed more than twenty buildings. The parish church of San Marcos survived despite its proximity, but the town hall, the granary, the butcher's shop and the jail were all lost.

In 1812, following the Cádiz Constitution, Icod became an independent municipality, a status consolidated in 1836 when it gained genuine economic autonomy as the island's single unified municipal regime — in place since the conquest — was finally dissolved.

The historic centre of Icod groups several monuments within easy walking distance of one another: the main parish church of San Marcos, the Plaza de Andrés de Lorenzo Cáceres, the Plaza de la Pila, the Convent of San Francisco, the Casa-Museo Emeterio Gutiérrez Albelo, the church of San Agustín, the Casa de los Cáceres, and the chapels of San Antonio de Padua and Las Angustias.

The Plaza de Andrés de Lorenzo Cáceres sits close to the famous Dragon Tree park. At its centre stands the parish church of San Marcos Evangelista, and nearby is a monument to General José Antonio Páez — a hero of Venezuelan independence and the great-great-grandson of a man from Icod. The square took its current form in the early twentieth century, incorporating the site of a former street and a demolished Bernardine convent. A modernist bandstand and various sculptures of locally significant figures were added to the tree-filled space. On Calle de San Sebastián, built over the ruins of the 1798 fire, stands the mansion of the Marqués de Santa Lucía, which once served as the seat of the Centro Icodense and bears a bust of the poet Emeterio Gutiérrez Albelo.

The church of San Marcos itself dates to around 1501 and is built in the Canarian colonial style. Around 1570, the master stonemason Miguel Antúnez rebuilt it as a three-nave church; two further naves of side chapels were added, all separated by columns and semicircular arches. The structure is broadly Mudéjar in inspiration but incorporates a Mannerist stone portal from the last third of the sixteenth century — notable for its unusual projecting keystone — and a tower with Gothic French influences. The chapels, choir and pulpits are largely Baroque. Among the outstanding pieces inside is a figure of the Señor Difunto de Icod de los Vinos, made from corn paste by Tarascan craftsmen from Michoacán, Mexico, and acquired before 1578. The church also holds works by Martín Andújar, pieces from the school of Alonso Cano, and works by Pedro Roldán, Blas García Ravelo and Francisco Alonso de la Raya. The main chapel retains a polychrome Baroque altarpiece, a repousse silver monstrance, and a gold and silver filigree tabernacle. The church and its moveable contents were declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest in May 2006, and it houses a sacred art museum.

From Puerto de la Cruz, follow the TF-5; from Costa Adeje or Las Américas, take the TF-1 to Santiago del Teide, then the winding TF-82 north over the Teno mountains. The TF-42 connects Icod along the coast to Garachico and Buenavista del Norte. A signed underground paid car park sits close to the main sights, with free public toilets attached.

Free parking is also available at the underground car park of the Centro Comercial La Magalona — which houses the Museo Guanche — best entered from the eastern end of Calle Pepe Floro off Calle Francisco Miranda (note the many one-way streets). The main sights, apart from the Cueva del Viento and the beach, are walkable. The tourist office is at Rambla Pérez del Cristo 4, tel. +34 922 121 600.

Local wines — particularly whites made from listán blanco, as well as listán tinto and tintilla — are a regional speciality worth seeking out.