The first emblematic hotel in the Canary Islands
El Hotel Hacienda de Abajo consta, dentro de un recinto amurallado, de cuatro edificaciones distribuidas alrededor de un jardín interior, donde antiguamente se ubicó la huerta de la hacienda.
La Casa Principal de Tazacorte, del siglo XVII, constituye un bien inmueble integrante del patrimonio histórico de Canarias. Edificada por don Pedro José de Sotomayor Topete y Massieu , fue su mujer, doña Catalina Cecilia de Sotomayor Topete y Alzola, quien agrega esta casa al vínculo que fundó a favor de su hijo segundo, en cuya descendencia se conserva actualmente.
The Hotel Hacienda de Abajo consists, within a walled enclosure, of four buildings distributed around an interior garden, where the hacienda's vegetable garden was formerly located.
The Main House of Tazacorte, from the 17th century, is a property that is part of the historical heritage of the Canary Islands. Built by Don Pedro José de Sotomayor Topete y Massieu, it was his wife, Doña Catalina Cecilia de Sotomayor Topete y Alzola, who added this house to the bond that she founded in favour of her second son, in whose descendants it is still preserved today. Its extension, with new high and low buildings, responds to the tradition of adding bodies to the primitive building that make its layout end in an L or U shape, to meet future needs, reusing wood, ashlars and stones from buildings that no longer exist: sustainable architecture.
From 2010 to 2012, the old Casa Principal de Tazacorte underwent a careful restoration by the architect María del Carmen Alemañ García, which, after the removal of unfortunate architectural additions, has allowed it to regain its original appearance. This rectangular-shaped house, with an upper and lower floor plan, two Arabic tile hipped roofs and an exceptional cooker for drying cochineal, has, like the other stately homes of the old hacienda, a balcony-corridor open to the west, while from the opposite façade one could contemplate the hacienda's orchard. A two-storey building with balconies and two towers has been added, which, with a magnificent view of the sea and the crops, emphasises the stately and almost military character of the tower-house of these old residences, since, as in traditional Canarian architecture, new needs are met by adding successive bodies to the original building, normally arranged in a linear form, so that this arrangement ends up in an L or U shape.
At the same time, the new buildings surrounding the house respect the original layout of the sugar plantation and the building typology of the area, where the domestic architecture blends harmoniously into a landscape where the predominance of sugar cane has been replaced, since the end of the 19th century, by bananas. One of the houses is a low and high house with Arabic tile roofs and open balconies, while the other two are single-storey buildings with Arabic tile roofs, one housing a small chapel that recreates the chapels of the old haciendas, and the other a luxurious Casa de Baños.
Doors, windows and other architectural elements used in the façades and interiors of these buildings are, to a large extent, examples from the 17th to 19th centuries saved from destruction and represent the best collection formed in the Canary Islands in recent years. This reflects a very common practice in Canarian architecture, which was the reuse of wood, ashlars and stones from demolished buildings for use in new constructions. This is yet another example of sustainable architecture that is aware of the value of scarce and therefore valuable natural resources.
Indeed, the best collection of tapestries in the Canary Islands, with French and Flemish pieces from the 16th to the 18th centuries; a valuable art gallery with works from the 15th to the 20th centuries; Chinese sculptures, furniture and porcelain from the Tang to the Qing dynasty; European furniture from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries; delicate religious carvings from the 16th to the 19th centuries and all sorts of other sumptuous objects make this hotel a reference in the artistic panorama of the islands, where every corner becomes a gratifying surprise for any art lover and evokes a bygone era in which the inhabitants of this hacienda surrounded themselves with the most exquisite artistic objects from Europe, America and, through the Philippines, Asia, thanks to commercial exchanges.