Casa de Carta in Valle Guerra

There are in Tenerife various historic properties that belonged once to the most powerful family in the island during the XVIII Century, the Carta Family. The Carta Estate in Valle Guerra, rather than a mansion, is a splendid historic farm or a rural manor house, undoubtedly, one of the most important examples of historic rural property in Tenerife.

The family mansion par excellence would certainly be the Carta Palace located in the current Plaza de Candelaria in the capital of the island of Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. D. Matías Rodríguez Carta, was the initiator of this powerful lineage. Born in the island of La Palma and established in Tenerife at an early age, he amassed a considerable fortune with his maritime and commercial activities between the Canary Islands and the Spanish territories in America.

In 1726, at the age of 51 years, the upper mentioned Captain, bought to the local rancher Don Lope Fernandez de la Guerra, a modest rural property that over the years, the Carta's, would end up transforming into this large estate, farm or rural property in Tenerife; known as Casa de Carta del Valle de Guerra, Tenerife mansion to which we devote this article.

This large Tenerife mansion, is characterized by responding to the accumulation of several buildings over 125 years of history, between the date of 1726 and mid-nineteenth century, giving the whole a singular distribution. Among the highlights of this historic rural property in Tenerife, we should mention its lovely enclosed gazebo tea (Canarian pine) wood, which forms the entire north facade of this great Tenerife mansion.

A very interesting construction detail of this beautiful Tenerife rural property, is that protecting  the most exposed face of the house, the gazebo or closed wooden balcony, a thick perimeter wall crowned by battlements stands. The mansion in its main body is distributed in two heights, so that the upper storey was used for residential purposes, while the lower floor was used as a store.

The western facade is characterized by having a very traditional entrance within the large manor estates in Tenerife, which is always crowned by a cross. Once inside, you pass through a semicircular arch made of red tuff volcanic stone, which ultimately leads to the central courtyard.

The roof of the house, like all traditional houses in Tenerife, is topped with the re-known "muslera" gables, which are U-shaped and made of clay. Most of the floors are covered by original terracotta tiles, except in the most residential rooms in which are wooden, made out of huge tea (Canarian pine) logs. Important is to mention, as well, the thick stone walls and the impressive and precious coffered ceilings in the main rooms.

Finally, it is very interesting that this stunning country estate of Tenerife, preserves its beautiful and original Kitchen, plus some side patios, trees and the beautiful historic wine press, where once the fruit of the surrounding vineyards was tread to produce excellent wines that were exported, giving lots character to this fabulous Tenerife historic mansion.