Los Silos: Tenerife's Tech and Industry Pillars
Los Silos, Tenerife, preserves the historic Telegraph House, which pioneered Atlantic telecommunications for the Canary Islands, and a sugar chimney, both pivotal to the region's technological and economic development.
The town of Los Silos, located in northern Tenerife, is home to two important sites that played a big part in the Canary Islands' technological and economic growth. One is the Telegraph House, which made the islands leaders in Atlantic telecommunications. The other is a sugar chimney, a leftover from the industry that changed the island's economy in the 1800s.
The Telegraph House in Los Silos was the first place for telecommunications in the Canary Islands. In the late 1800s, this spot on the coast was chosen to connect a submarine cable between Tenerife and La Palma. This created the first telegraph link between the two islands. A London-based company, The India Rubber Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company Limited, installed the cable. Two steamships, the Internacional and the Dacia, were used to lay it.
The telegraph cable was secured at Agua Dulce beach in Los Silos. While the cable was being laid in the sea, a temporary metal hut was put up on land. This was later replaced by the building you see today, a simple structure of brick, lime, and roof tiles that still stands on the cliff. After a lot of hard work, on November 22, 1883, the two islands were connected by a cable 69 miles long and 77 millimeters thick. The next day, the first telegram was received from Santa Cruz de La Palma. This was a historic moment: it was the first telegraph cable ever laid in the Atlantic Ocean.
The progress didn't stop there. The cable was extended to Cádiz, and a special telegram was sent on December 6, 1883, to mark the occasion. In the years that followed, the rest of the Canary Islands were connected. The full telegraph network for the Canary Islands started operating on February 12, 1885. This allowed instant communication with Europe and encouraged foreign companies to come to the islands. The telegraph hut was restored in 2001, preserving its historical importance.
Just a few meters from this technological landmark stands another symbol of Tenerife's industrial past: the chimney of the old Los Silos sugar mill. It's a reminder of a time when sugarcane turned the island into a production hub for Europe. This facility was built between 1889 and 1890 within the Hacienda de Daute by a British company from Manchester called The Ycod & Daute Estate Company Limited. They also built a similar factory in Gran Canaria.
The sugar mill was built on old salt pans and included two large sheds, a distinctive chimney made of local stone, a house for sharecroppers, and an extra pond. Nearby, the Daute pier was constructed, and parts of it still exist today. It was used for loading and exporting sugar. After the economic difficulties following the First World War, bananas took over from sugarcane, leading to the sugar factory's closure and its machinery being moved to Portugal. The building and its pier were then used for packing and exporting fruit, a role they continue to fulfill today.
These two places tell different stories, but they share one legacy: Los Silos played a crucial role in modernizing and developing the economy of the Canary Islands.