A book about the tragic fire and the rebirth of the Church of La Concepción is being published.
In the town of Los Realejos, a book will be presented about the 500-year history of the Church of La Concepción, which was restored after a devastating fire in 1978 with the support of Queen Sofía of Spain.
On November 5, 1978, a great tragedy struck the town of Los Realejos – the Church of La Concepción burned down. The fire quickly engulfed the temple and destroyed many valuable items: paintings, sculptures by famous masters, such as Fernando Estévez. It is said that the damage amounted to about 1.5 million euros.
Local residents immediately got to work. On the same day, a commission was gathered to assess the damage. They compiled a detailed list and handed it over the very next day to Queen Sofía of Spain, who was in Tenerife at the time. She had come to open an airport named after her.
The Queen already knew about the fire from a telegram sent to her by the city council. She promised to help restore the church. According to news reports at the time, it was she who asked the government to allocate funds for the reconstruction.
The church was rebuilt for 15 years. And on June 27, 1993, it reopened its doors to believers.
And it took David Pérez-Siverio González a decade and a half to write a book about this story – "Parroquia Matriz de Realejo Bajo. Memory and Religious Heritage." The book contains many interesting details about how the temple was restored. Its presentation will take place today at 8:30 PM in the church itself.
The book has 776 pages and tells the story of the church's 500 years of history. The author spent a long time researching the archives to write it. It is said to be part of his larger project to preserve the cultural heritage of the Canary Islands.
"The hardest part was collecting all the documents, photographs, slides that were scattered around the homes of local residents," says historian David Pérez-Siverio González. "We had to scan and organize everything."
One of David's friends called his work "documentary archeology" because almost no original documents remained.
Initially, David just wanted to write about the fire and the reconstruction of the church. But then he decided to explore its entire history. "It wasn't easy," he says, "but we managed to restore the church, although other temples that were damaged by fire, unfortunately, did not have the same fate."