Tegueste

The town of Tegueste lies in the north-east of Tenerife, right on the edge of Anaga Country Park covering a surface area of 26.4 km2 (10.2 sq miles). Surrounded entirely by the municipality of La Laguna, there are no parts of Tegueste on the coast. In fact, it lies in a vast watershed, which is what creates its mild temperatures and luscious countryside. Although mankind has altered the area's primitive landscapes, there are still stretches of pine and laurel forests coexisting with eucalyptus trees and non-native species. The road of Los Laureles, for instance, is surrounded by laurels that belonged to the tertiary period. Tegueste is caressed by the trade winds, encouraging the growth of rainfed crops which is what the locals traditionally lived on. The municipality began to form in the early 16th century in the area known as El LLano, between the Las Tapias ravine and the Las Ceras ravine, which is where the first chapel was erected to worship San Marcos Evangelista, though that chapel was moved to its current location in 1701. Nowadays, the historic quarter of Tegueste, which was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1986, is the result of gradual urban transformations over the centuries.