Must see cultural things in Santa Cruz

[Christianb]

6334

Can anybody suggest must see places of cultural/artistic/intellectual nature in the beautiful city of Santa Cruz in which I am fortunate now to live?

So far I have been only exploring the nature around and beautiful vistas, but feel the need to give more attention to the realms of civilisation as well.

If you can suggest places that you have seen or know about, it would be great, and the links would be useful.
Perhaps we could make a list of top 20 places?

If you live in this area and want to meet, it would be great too. I am looking more for intellectual types, as I am a writer etc

[LUCKY]

https://www.google.es/maps/place/Museo+Historico+Militar+de+Canarias/@28.4748196,-16.2476074,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1s-cTYKn-Mje

[ribuck]

The market is in an architecturally interesting building. Just across the road is the arts centre, a boxy black building whose saving grace is a walkway going down a ramp right through it, cutting through the library above the heads of the library visitors. The library itself is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is quite interesting (but not architecturally), and there are various other exhibitions and performances in the building. One of the little cafes near here, across the Barranco de Santos (in Calle La Concordia, not far from the footbridge) caters to bohemian/intellectual types. Sorry I can't remember the name or the exact location (I'm back in England at the moment), but you will know it immediately by the interesting content adorning the walls.

Obviously you can visit the Auditorio (the big white building that looks like a canary pecking at some seed) for blockbuster performances, both popular and serious. But I prefer Teatro Guimerá on Angel Guimerá Street along the tram route. It's the one with the big sculpture of a face on the plaza outside. They have a mixture of popular and intellectual fare.

There are lots of museums and art galleries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz_de_Tenerife#Cultural_areas), and some of them are a bit the same as museums and art galleries everywhere, but each one is interesting to some people. I like the tiny little underground Castillo Museum that exposes the original foundations of the city and of the original castle, and has the history of Admiral Nelson losing his arm in battle in Tenerife. I forget exactly where the entrance is, but it's down a nondescript stairway somewhere at Plaza de España.

I really enjoy the street art and public sculpture. For sculpture, the best place to start is Parque Garcia Sanabria Arbórea. This is a delightful park full of sculpture, water features, little recreation areas, and a mini botanic gardens. Rambla de Santa Cruz is also renowned for dramatic grand sculpture, but some of the sculptures are on temporary exhibition and sometimes it's a bit empty. If you like sculpture and street art you can just stroll the streets with a keen eye, and you will be amply rewarded.

If you want to see some murals that have never made it into any guidebook, descend the steps into Barranco de Tahodio (immediately south of Club Nautico) just before the barranco flows into the sea, and you will see a row of nautical-themed and football-themed murals.

The Palmetum finally opened to the public in 2014. I haven't been there yet, but it sounds quite impressive.

I never get tired of Santa Cruz, or run out of interesting things to do there. I look forward to seeing what suggestions others will offer.

[Christianb]

This is a photo I took from the Campus Guajara University De la Laguna, also the tram stop, that seems to be a conference building of social sciences department. One can walk around the pyramid and admire the view, but architecturally it is quite stinking a bit "Atlantian". I wonder if there are public lectures at the Universities in Santa Cruz that are given in English...

6335

Thanks Ribuck for your suggestions, I'll have to check those places. It makes me think, this story about Lord Nelson; if he won the battle, with the arm or not, we would not have to learn Spanish here, however, because he lost the battle, the arm and thus Spain prevailed, we are able at the moment to buy a house/flat ten times cheaper than in the south of England! Some people call this Chaos Theory... So on the balance of things, perhaps learning Spanish is not a bad thing at all... viva Espana with low prices and nice people!

[ribuck]

I'll look out for that pyramid the next time I'm in Santa Cruz.

And one more thing - the Musel de la Ciencia y el Cosmos is an interesting science museum. It's on the tram route. The style of presentation is aimed at teenagers but it's quite interesting for adults too. I liked the 3D Mars exhibit. It was fascinating to stand in the dome with my 3D glasses on, imagining that I was on the surface of Mars. Lifting up the car with the very long lever is quite interesting too. I seem to recall that entry is free one day per week, probably Sunday.

[Christianb]

Here is a super website about probably all Tenerife museums and galleries: www.museosdetenerife.org (http://www.museosdetenerife.org/)

For the Silence museum: free entrance from 16:00 to 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays or on holidays from 13:00 to 17:00

[Christianb]

There is this supper website about museums and galleries in Tenerife:
museosdetenerife DOT org (posted a proper link few days ago but requires moderators approval, if there is a moderator?)

If one clicks "eng" at the top Google will translate the entire page

Science museum is free on Friday and Saturday from 4 to 8, and on holidays from 1 to 5