👀 Don’t Miss
🚪 Puerta de Tierra – find the former harbour gate that was left standing on dry land after the eruption.
🌊 El Caletón – take a closer look at the black volcanic rocks and the pools formed in the lava.
🌋 Convento de San Francisco – step inside and see the maps showing the routes taken by the lava as it flowed towards Garachico.
🏛️ Casa de Piedra – look closely at the stone façade that remembers the town as it was before the eruption.
⚓ Muelle Viejo – see the old stone pier and the remains of warehouses and equipment later used to load bananas onto ships.
🪨 Roque de Garachico – see the solitary rock from the coast and, if you can, from above as well.
🗺️ All the Places on One Map
You will also find all the places described in this article in the guidebook Tenerife with Achamán. The interactive map of Tenerife included with the guide will show you exactly where to find them.
Not all of Tenerife’s historic sites are easy to find on popular online maps – some are marked inaccurately, listed under a different name or not marked at all. That is why I mark every place I describe on the guidebook map.
🪨 Roque de Garachico – the Solitary Rock off the Coast
It is difficult to miss. Around 300 metres off the coast of Garachico, a solitary dark rock rises from the ocean – Roque de Garachico. Standing about 73 metres high, it is one of the most distinctive features of the town’s landscape.
After learning about Garachico’s history, it would be easy to associate the rock with the eruption of 1706, but Roque is not a fragment of lava produced by Trevejo. Its history is older and is connected with the formation of the so-called Isla Baja – the low coastal platform on which Garachico, Los Silos and Buenavista del Norte now stand. Successive eruptions produced lava that flowed down from the ancient cliffs of La Culata into the ocean, gradually extending the coastline.
Later, the Atlantic took over. For thousands of years, waves eroded the coast, causing parts of it to retreat. Roque proved more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rocks and was left isolated from the mainland – like a rocky witness to an ancient coastline.
Today, Roque de Garachico is protected as a Monumento Natural. The rock is important not only geologically – its isolation has also made it an important site for seabirds.
👀 Look at Roque from above. It is only from one of the viewpoints overlooking Garachico that you can really appreciate the distance separating the rock from today’s shoreline. It then becomes easier to imagine that this coastal landscape is not something permanent – over thousands of years it was built by volcanic eruptions and later reshaped by the ocean.
Wooden cloisters of the former Convento de San Francisco,
one of the most fascinating historic interiors in Garachico.
🏠 Casa del Marqués de la Quinta Roja – a House Rebuilt After the Disaster
Standing on today’s Plaza de la Libertad is one of the most impressive residences of old Garachico – Casa del Marqués de la Quinta Roja. Its origins date back to the late 16th century, and its name comes from Cristóbal de Ponte y Llanera, the first Marquis of Quinta Roja and a descendant of the Genoese merchant Cristóbal de Ponte, who was closely connected with the beginnings of the town.
When lava reached Garachico in 1706, the house was completely affected by the eruption. It was later rebuilt, preserving its original layout. This makes the residence another place where we can see how the inhabitants tried to recreate their town after the disaster.
👀 It is worth looking beyond the façade. The most interesting features are inside: wooden galleries surrounding the courtyard, stone staircases, carved elements made from Canary Island pine and the distinctive mirador. It is a fine example of the traditional architecture of wealthy Canarian houses.
Today, it is not a museum – the historic residence is home to Hotel LIVVO La Quinta Roja. When visiting, remember that some of the interiors belong to a working hotel rather than a historic building that is fully open to the public.
Historic centre of Garachico.
On the left is the stone façade of Casa de Piedra,
with the buildings clustered around Plaza de la Libertad beyond.
🏛️ Casa de Piedra – the Palace That Rose from the Lava
At a time when Garachico was growing wealthy through maritime trade, prosperous families built impressive residences in the centre of the town. One of them was today’s Casa de Piedra, also known as Casa Palacio de los Condes de La Gomera. Construction began around 1666, and its owner was Juan Bautista de Ponte y Fonte. Later, through marriage between the families, the palace passed into the hands of the Counts of La Gomera.
The name Casa de Piedra, meaning “Stone House”, is no coincidence. The building’s most distinctive feature is its richly decorated stone façade, created by the stonemasons Antonio Pérez and Luis Báez Marichal from Gran Canaria. Pay particular attention to the entrances framed by fluted columns – they make the building stand out clearly from Garachico’s much simpler façades.
When the lava reached the town in 1706, the palace was badly damaged. This did not, however, mark the end of the building. It was rebuilt and, according to Garachico’s official information, the reconstruction probably followed the original design. Today’s Casa de Piedra is therefore another place where two versions of Garachico meet – the wealthy port town that existed before the eruption and the town rebuilt after the disaster.
👀 Take a closer look at the stone façade. This is the particularly fascinating part of the building. Tenerife’s official tourist route states that although the eruption destroyed a large part of the palace, its Renaissance stone façade survived. So when you look at it today, you are seeing a fragment of the building that remembers Garachico before 1706.
Ermita de San Roque.
A small chapel built in connection with the plague epidemic
that struck Garachico in the early 17th century.
🙏 Ermita de San Roque – the Chapel Born from an Epidemic
The small Chapel of San Roque standing at the entrance to Garachico may seem unassuming. Its history, however, takes us back to events that struck the town a century before the eruption of Trevejo.
Between 1601 and 1606, Garachico was hit by an outbreak of bubonic plague. It was no coincidence that the disease appeared in a port town – ships brought not only goods and people, but could also carry disease. The epidemic was serious enough for the authorities of Tenerife to try to restrict contact between Garachico and the rest of the island.
The inhabitants turned to Saint Roch, who since the Middle Ages had been invoked as a protector against plague. Surviving wills indicate that by 1603 a small oratory had already been built here by local worshippers in response to the epidemic. It was from these events that Garachico’s special bond with the saint developed, and he later became the town’s patron saint.
Today’s chapel is very simple: a single nave, a hipped roof and a distinctive façade with two small bell towers. The original building was restored and altered over the following centuries, so it should not be regarded as an unchanged chapel dating from the beginning of the 17th century.
🎉 The epidemic, however, left behind a tradition that is still very much alive today. Every year on 16 August, the Romería de San Roque takes place, one of Garachico’s most important celebrations. The statue of the saint is taken from the chapel to the Church of Santa Ana and later returns in a procession accompanied by decorated carts, animals, music and local people dressed in traditional Canarian costumes. The tradition of the festival directly recalls the events of the early 17th century.
👀 Notice the location of the chapel. It stands outside the densest part of Garachico’s historic centre, beside the old road leading into the town from Icod de los Vinos. When you see it, remember that Garachico had already faced a major disaster long before lava began advancing towards the town in 1706.
Former Convento de Santo Domingo.
Its most distinctive feature is a row of seven wooden balconies.
The building survived the 1706 eruption.
⛪ Churches and Monasteries of Garachico
The wealth of the former port can be seen not only in the merchants’ houses. By the end of the 17th century, Garachico had two churches, five monasteries, a hospital and several chapels. For a small town, this was an impressive collection of buildings. The eruption of 1706, however, left each of them with a slightly different story – some were damaged, others survived, while still others were rebuilt after subsequent disasters.
The most important church is Iglesia de Santa Ana. Construction began in the first half of the 16th century, when Garachico was just beginning to prosper alongside its growing port. The eruption destroyed a large part of the church, which was later rebuilt. It is worth stepping inside – you can see wooden ceilings in the Mudéjar tradition, as well as valuable works of religious art.
Just off Plaza de la Libertad stand Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles and the former Convento de San Francisco. The origins of the complex date back to 1524, when Cristóbal de Ponte gave the Franciscans land beside his chapel. The monastery itself is particularly interesting inside, with two wooden cloisters, stone staircases and decorative Mudéjar ceilings. Monks no longer live here – today, the building serves as the Casa de la Cultura.
💡 There is another reason to step inside. The former monastery houses an exhibition devoted to the volcanism of the Canary Islands. Among the exhibits are maps showing the course of the 1706 eruption and the routes taken by the lava as it flowed towards Garachico and its former port. It is one of those places that helps you better understand what actually happened here more than 300 years ago.
A little further away is the former Convento de Santo Domingo. Thanks to its location, it escaped the lava in 1706. Its most distinctive feature is its long façade with seven wooden balconies on the upper floor. This is the monastery we made a note to find during your visit to Garachico.
There is also the Convento de las Concepcionistas Franciscanas. The enclosed religious community began its life here in 1643. The lava passed close by in 1706, but the monastery survived. Three years later, however, it was badly damaged by fire, and in 1856 it suffered further damage during a violent storm. Interestingly, this is the only monastery in Garachico where a religious community still lives today.
👀 So do not look at them simply as a succession of similar historic buildings. Santa Ana tells the story of rebuilding after the eruption, San Francisco recalls the wealth of the port town, Santo Domingo shows what escaped the lava, while the Convent of the Conceptionist Franciscans reveals how a single place could survive a volcano, a fire and the destructive force of the ocean. Together, they form a fascinating record of Garachico’s history.
🗺️ On the Guidebook Map
You will find the places described here on the interactive map of Tenerife included with Tenerife with Achamán.
Castillo de San Miguel.
A 16th-century fortress that once guarded the port of Garachico.
It survived the 1706 eruption.
🏰 Castillo de San Miguel – the Fort That Survived
Before the lava transformed Garachico’s coastline, this was the entrance to one of Tenerife’s most important ports. It needed protection from pirates and privateers, who posed a genuine threat to the Canary Islands in the 16th century. In 1575, King Philip II therefore authorised the construction of a fort to defend the port. The main building work took place between 1575 and 1577, although the fort was later extended.
Castillo de San Miguel does not resemble a great castle. It is a small, solid stone defensive tower with a square plan, thick walls and an artillery platform at the top. Its cannons were intended to control the entrance to the bay and, if necessary, fire on ships approaching the port.
Then came 1706. Lava flowed into the bay and transformed the surroundings of the fort, but Castillo de San Miguel itself survived the eruption without being destroyed. The paradox was that although the building survived, it lost much of its original purpose – the port it had been built to protect no longer functioned in its former form.
👀 Be sure to look above the entrance. Carved into the stone are the coats of arms used by Emperor Charles V and later by his son Philip II. If the fort is open, it is also worth going up to the upper platform. Garachico’s official website recommends it as a good place from which to view the lava coastline of El Caletón.
And this is one of the best places to see just how dramatically the eruption transformed the town. The fort stands almost exactly where it did before 1706, but the landscape around it is completely different. It once guarded a bay filled with ships. Today, it stands beside black volcanic rocks and natural pools formed in the lava.
🗺️ On the Guidebook Map
You will find Castillo de San Miguel and the other places described in Garachico on the interactive map of Tenerife included with Tenerife with Achamán.
🌊 El Caletón – Swimming Pools Created by Lava
What was a disaster for Garachico in 1706 eventually became one of its greatest attractions. When the lava from Trevejo reached the ocean, it solidified into irregular tongues of rock, hollows and small coves. The Atlantic did the rest – over the following centuries, waves eroded the weaker sections of rock and smoothed their edges. This is how the natural pools of El Caletón were formed.
These are not, therefore, pools carved entirely by people. Their basic shape was created by lava and the ocean, although the site was later adapted for swimming with the addition of steps, platforms and safety features. Water flows into the rocky pools directly from the Atlantic, so both its level and calmness depend on sea conditions. When the waves are stronger, El Caletón can look completely different from how it appears on a calm day.
👀 When you are there, look beyond the pools themselves. Notice the black rocks stretching between the town and the ocean. They are part of the lava flow that entered the former harbour bay in 1706. Standing at El Caletón, you are therefore on land that simply did not exist here before the eruption.
Castillo de San Miguel, standing right beside the pools, is an excellent viewpoint. On one side is a fort that remembers Garachico before the disaster; on the other, the solidified lava that transformed its coastline. There are few places where the history of the town can be seen so clearly in the landscape itself.
💡 Did You Know?
The name caletón comes from the Spanish caleta – a small cove or sheltered place along the coast. El Caletón can therefore be understood as “the large cove”. It is difficult to imagine a better reminder of Garachico’s great paradox: the same lava that deprived the town of its former port created the coastline for which Garachico is known today.
🗺️ On the Guidebook Map
You will find the places described here on the interactive map of Tenerife included with Tenerife with Achamán.
Traces of Garachico’s later port history.
Former banana-packing warehouses
and the remains of a structure once used to load the fruit onto ships.
🏘️ The Town Starts Again
When the eruption finally ended, Garachico was still standing, but it was no longer the same town. Some buildings had been destroyed or damaged, much of the natural harbour bay had disappeared beneath the lava, and with it Garachico had lost the foundation of its former commercial power. Reconstruction began, but a return to the town’s most prosperous days was no longer possible. Garachico’s official history describes the following decades as a long period of economic decline, during which agriculture and fishing became increasingly important.
What could be saved, however, was rebuilt. The Church of Santa Ana, much of which had been damaged during the eruption and subsequent fire, was reconstructed. Casa del Marqués de la Quinta Roja was also rebuilt, following the building’s earlier layout. Casa de Piedra, later owned by the Counts of La Gomera, was badly damaged as well – its later reconstruction probably followed the original design.
Not everything, however, had to be raised from the ruins. Castillo de San Miguel survived the eruption, as did the Convento de Santo Domingo, located higher up – a place we will return to as we explore the town. As a result, today’s Garachico is an interesting mixture of buildings that remember the town’s prosperous port era and those rebuilt after the disaster.
⚓ Interestingly, the inhabitants did not turn their backs on the sea completely. A new quay was built – today’s Muelle Viejo – after the eruption. Garachico never regained its former position as a major trading port, but towards the end of the 19th century, as banana cultivation expanded, inter-island shipping brought renewed activity to the town.
👀 As you walk through Garachico, you are actually looking at a town from two different eras. Some buildings survived 1706, others were rebuilt, while parts of today’s coastline did not exist at all before the eruption. You can see this most clearly beside the ocean, where the lava that once brought disaster to the town eventually created one of its most distinctive attractions.
🗺️ Find This Place on the Map
I have marked the places described here, along with other sites featured in the guidebook, on the interactive map of Tenerife included with Tenerife with Achamán.
Puerta de Tierra – the former gateway leading to Garachico’s port.
After the 1706 eruption transformed the coastline, it was left standing on dry land.
⚓ Did the Volcano Really Destroy the Port?
The story of Garachico is usually told very simply: in 1706, lava destroyed the port and the town lost its importance. That is true, but only partly.
The lava did indeed reach the harbour bay. One of the flows entered the sea and covered a large part of the natural harbour, creating a new area of land. Archaeological research indicates that more than half of the former harbour bay was buried beneath the lava, while part of the flow extends beneath the surface of the sea. The port, in the form that had previously allowed Garachico to handle extensive maritime trade, ceased to exist.
But there is an interesting detail. Garachico did not simply abandon its port. After the eruption, the inhabitants rebuilt the town and the harbour was partially repaired, allowing goods to continue to be loaded and unloaded here. Trade therefore did not disappear overnight – but it continued on a much smaller scale.
This is why the statement that “the volcano destroyed the port and ended Garachico’s prosperity” is too much of a simplification. The town’s problems had begun earlier. During the 17th century, other ports on Tenerife were already taking an increasing share of the island’s trade. Sources indicate that from as early as the 1630s, Garachico had to compete with Puerto de la Orotava – today’s Puerto de la Cruz – and Santa Cruz.
The eruption was therefore not so much the beginning of all Garachico’s problems as a devastating blow to a town that was already losing its former advantage. Researchers studying the history of Garachico have even emphasised that the volcano accelerated an existing process of decline, which was also influenced by broader economic and political circumstances.
So I would put it this way: Trevejo did not cause Garachico to cease to exist. But it took away what had underpinned the town’s prosperity for two centuries – its convenient natural harbour. The town had to be rebuilt, while the centre of Tenerife’s major maritime trade shifted elsewhere.
👀 And this brings us back to Puerta de Tierra. When you stand beside this former harbour gate, look at how far it is from the ocean today. Before 1706, it led towards the port. During the eruption, lava flowed into the bay and pushed the coastline further out, leaving the gate on dry land. It is one of the clearest traces of just how dramatically the volcano transformed Garachico.
🔥 The Night the Lava Reached Garachico
The eruption began on 5 May 1706, before dawn, but the lava needed only a matter of hours to cover the approximately 6.5 kilometres separating the eruptive fissures from Garachico. By the evening of the same day, lava flows were already descending the steep escarpment above the town. Modern research indicates that it was on 5 May that the lava first reached both the built-up area and the harbour bay.
It was not, however, one enormous flow that engulfed the whole of Garachico at once. The lava divided into several branches. Some flowed towards the bay, filling part of the former harbour and pushing the coastline further out into the ocean. Other flows entered the built-up areas. Garachico did not disappear beneath the lava, although this is the image that later became firmly established in many accounts of the eruption. The destruction was extensive, but part of the town survived.
And the danger was not over. On 12 May, another wave of lava reached deeper into the town. Studies of historical accounts indicate that the area around today’s Convento de San Francisco was particularly badly affected at this time. Hot lava did not always have to cover a building directly to destroy it – intense heat and glowing fragments of rock caused fires that could easily spread to structures containing large amounts of timber. The fire affected, among other buildings, the San Francisco monastery, neighbouring houses and the Church of Santa Ana.
This is why it is worth looking at Garachico’s historic buildings a little differently as you walk through the town today. The Church of Santa Ana was rebuilt after the eruption, while the Convento de Santo Domingo, located higher up, escaped the lava. Some of the buildings standing around Plaza de la Libertad today also carry the story of the disaster – Casa del Marqués de la Quinta Roja was rebuilt after the destruction according to its earlier design.
👀 When you are in Garachico, look at the town from the ocean side. Today’s shoreline is not the same coastline that the inhabitants saw before 1706. Some of the land you can walk on today was created by lava flowing into the sea. The natural pools of El Caletón now lie on and among these lava formations.
What is most surprising, however, is that a disaster on such an enormous scale did not destroy the whole of Garachico. And an even more interesting question is: did it really destroy its port completely?
Map of volcanic eruptions in north-western Tenerife.
The colours indicate areas covered by successive lava flows.
Garachico and Roque de Garachico can be seen at the bottom.
🌋 Trevejo – the Volcano That Advanced Towards the Town
On the morning of 5 May 1706, the ground above Garachico split open. The eruption began high above the town, on Tenerife’s north-western volcanic ridge. It was not Teide that erupted, nor did the lava flow from its crater. New fissures opened, releasing lava, ash and fragments of rock. This marked the beginning of the eruption of the volcano now known as Trevejo, Arenas Negras or Volcán de Garachico.
🔥 The greatest threat to Garachico was the lava. The eruption site lay much higher than the town, so lava flows began moving down the steep slopes towards the ocean. It was not a single broad “tongue” of lava. Successive flows followed the contours of the terrain, splitting and changing direction as they descended. Their paths can still be traced today in the landscape between the mountains and the coast.
The eruption did not end after one dramatic night. According to a study by Spain’s Instituto Geográfico Nacional, it lasted for 40 days – from 5 May to 13 June 1706. During this period, lava covered around 6.9 km², while the volume of erupted magma is estimated at approximately 0.05 km³.
💡 Did You Know?
If you come across information stating that the Garachico eruption lasted only nine or eleven days, do not be surprised. This version can even be found in official Tenerife tourism materials. More detailed volcanological studies by the IGN and the Cabildo, however, give a duration of 40 days of volcanic activity.
For the inhabitants, however, the most important question was not how long the eruption would last, but where the lava was heading. Below lay a wealthy town and a port on which much of its economy depended.
🌊 Before the Lava Came – One of Tenerife’s Most Important Ports
It is difficult to imagine today, but peaceful Garachico was once one of the most important places on Tenerife. At the end of the 15th century, the Genoese merchant and banker Cristóbal de Ponte settled here. He had helped finance the conquest of the island and received land in this part of Tenerife. He built a house and, around 1501, a sugar mill. A settlement began to develop around the small bay, quickly tying its future to the sea.
Garachico’s location proved to be one of its greatest advantages. In the 16th century, its harbour became one of Tenerife’s main ports and an important centre of trade with Europe, Africa and the Americas. Ships left Garachico loaded with sugar and wine. Malvasía was particularly prized – a Canary Islands wine exported from here to tables across Europe. The ships returned carrying goods needed by the rapidly developing island.
⚓ The port brought money to Garachico – and money transformed the town. Merchants, shipowners and wealthy families settled here. Impressive houses, churches, monasteries and warehouses were built. By the end of the 17th century, Garachico already had, among other buildings, two churches, five monasteries, a hospital and a castle. Much of today’s old town is a reminder of that prosperous period.
Interestingly, Garachico did not have a harbour in the modern sense, with large breakwaters and sheltered basins. Its wealth grew around a natural bay and anchorage. By the 17th century, competition from other ports, particularly Puerto de la Orotava and Santa Cruz, was increasing, but Garachico remained an important trading centre, especially for connections between the Canary Islands and the Americas.
👀 When you walk through Garachico, look for Puerta de Tierra. This surviving stone arch once formed the entrance leading to the old port. Today, it stands in a small garden, some distance from the water. It is one of those details that may initially seem strange. Why is a former harbour gate now standing on dry land?
The answer came on 5 May 1706. That was when the eruption began that would transform Garachico’s coastline and bring its era as a major port to an end.
Garachico – the Town Transformed by Lava
Today, Garachico looks like a peaceful town beside the Atlantic. Colourful houses surround small squares, an old fort stands by the ocean, and the natural pools of El Caletón have formed among the black volcanic rocks. It is difficult to believe that this was once home to one of Tenerife’s most important ports.
Everything changed in 1706, when lava began flowing towards the town. It reached the buildings and the coast, transforming Garachico forever. But did the volcano really – as is often claimed – destroy the entire town and bury its port?
Before you start exploring Garachico, discover what happened here more than 300 years ago and how many traces of that history can still be seen today.
📖 Discover Tenerife with Achamán
Tenerife becomes much more fascinating when you understand what shaped the island we see today and the stories hidden within the places you visit.
👉 In the guidebook Tenerife with Achamán – The Island Told by the God of the Guanches, you will find not only attractions, ready-made itineraries and practical tips, but also the history of the island – from its first inhabitants and the world of the Guanches, through the conquest of Tenerife, pirate raids and the development of its towns, to the volcanic eruptions that repeatedly transformed its landscape.