Alvarado Bracamonte Mansion

Built between 1624 and 1631 by Don Diego de Alvarado Bracamonte, Captain General of the island of Tenerife, this great manor house is one of the greatest exponents of palace architecture of seventeenth century La Laguna.

It is especially noteworthy, as far as the façade is concerned,  for the use of red tuff, from the La Laguna area known as Las Canteras, located just outside the city on the road to the beautiful rainforest mountain of Las Mercedes, and the asymmetric distribution and size of windows. Also the recently discovered and highlighted in the last restoration, sgraffito, simulating a balustrade that elegantly crowns the main façade looking over the popular and central street of La Carrera, officially  Bishop Rey Redondo street.

We must not forget, as well, the main entrance, which is finished in a broken frontispiece and is surmounted by a sphere, all in red volcanic tuff.

Thus, of the two areas into which the main entrance splits, the bottom one presents a great gateway framed by rusticated pilasters, while the upper begins in a central balcony supported by corbels, with dented decor that extends to the frontispiece and frames a large window.

The front door, through a traditional hallway, leads to a large central U-shaped courtyard, with stone columns and wooden porticoed pillars and whose second floor alternates closed sash windows galleries with an open balcony balustrade.

In the center of the courtyard, an old walnut tree alternates with diverse plants and an interesting stone fountain.

Today this historic Tenerife mansion is a department of the City council of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, being linked directly with the former corn exchange, the Governors house, the old town hall of Ferdinand VII times, and other buildings that make up the town hall of this world heritage city and former capital of the Canary Islands.