If you walk up Calle de Inés Chemida, beside a rudimentary arcade that forms a beautiful aqueduct, you reach Santa María La Antigua or San Francisco, one of the oldest districts in the Canary Islands. It is made up of small whitewashed houses with pitched tiled roofs, doors and windows of mature pine, some green and others purple, and cobbled streets full of charm, peace, simplicity and harmony. This historical-artistic site still preserves its traditional architecture.
Attentive travellers will understand at once that the Barrio de San Francisco is much more than a small collection of narrow streets in the city of Telde. It leaves signs of its history at your feet as you walk, signs that come out to meet you and tell you about the past. A real legacy that the chroniclers and inhabitants of this place have carefully preserved to this day.
The crosses placed along a circular route are there for a reason. The mounting blocks, the street names, are symbols with which to piece together the origins of San Francisco. It was the artisans’ district, the former Jewish quarter inhabited by those who worked for the burghers of San Juan nearby, where the Christians lived.
The only entrance that San Francisco originally had is in Calle Carlos E. Navarro. From here, the path seems to immerse you in a little timeless journey. It leads you along the alleys referred to by the poet Julián Torón. Current indications and other older ones will lead the seeker of hidden corners to the meeting point where past and present merge.
Conventual Church of San Francisco
The conventual church, located in the San Francisco district, is of simple construction, with a rectangular ground plan. It has two naves, separated by three beautiful grey stone arches, and inside we can see many examples of art in the purest Baroque style, particularly three polychrome stone altarpieces that delight everyone who comes to this place with their simplicity and naivety. Also outstanding are an exquisite Christ of the Agony, a work of Sevillian origin, brought to this city at the dawn of the seventeenth century, and a small carving representing St Francis of Assisi, whose authorship remains unknown.
Plaza de San Francisco
This square with a rectangular layout and a small fountain in the centre is an incomparable example of Canarian architecture and urban planning. Attention should be drawn to a building with a square ground plan and a hipped roof, which contained sculptures representing the Passion and Death of Christ, in the manner of a hermitage, and was hence called Calvary. In its façade we can see the stone cavities which served as alms boxes.
Stations of the Cross
In various streets in San Francisco, against the façades of the houses, there are a considerable number of crosses made of mature Gran Canaria pinewood, painted or varnished, from the time when the Convent existed, as signs of the Stations of the Cross, celebrated in the steets by the Franciscans.
El Bailadero Site
A site adjoining the Castillo Olivares estate, excavated in the promontory that forms part of the San Francisco district. It is a place of dwelling and worship, or almogarén (ancient sanctuary), of El Bailadero, comprising numerous caves as well as bowls and channels that the early inhabitants of Telde used when worshipping fertility.
San Francisco Aqueduct
At the end of the nineteenth century, the city of Telde experienced significant economic growth due to its agricultural production, and it therefore became necessary to build water systems to carry water to where it was needed. So irrigation appeared, and its spread led to the construction of aqueducts such as that of San Francisco, consisting of a series of arches supported by thick columns, all made of volcanic tuff.
El Calvarito
A small building with a square ground plan and a hipped roof that contained sculptures representing the Passion and Death of Christ, in the manner of a hermitage; hence its name Calvary or Calvarito (“Little Calvary”). Two cavities can be seen carved in the stone; these were used as alms boxes, where the faithful deposited their tithes, either in money or in kind.
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