Home of the world's third-largest carnival — where Spain goes to party in February
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital of Tenerife and one half of the co-capital of the Canary Islands, and while most visitors fly straight to the resort towns in the south, the city is a genuine metropolitan centre with excellent museums, a strikingly modern Auditorio de Tenerife designed by Santiago Calatrava, and the third-largest carnival in the world after Rio and Venice. The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, filling the streets for two weeks each February with elaborate costumes, music, and the famous election of the Carnival Queen in a gown t…
Santa Cruz was founded in 1494 when Alonso Fernández de Lugo landed with his conquest force near the present-day Castillo de San Cristóbal. The city grew as a key Atlantic port on the route between Spain and the Americas, and was famously the site where Admiral Horatio Nelson lost his right arm in a failed 1797 attack — a defeat commemorated in the city with particular satisfaction. The carnival tradition began during Spanish colonisation, drawing from both Spanish and African influences. The Auditorio de Tenerife, completed in 2003, has become the island's most recognisable modern landmark.