Santa Cruz de Tenerife Secures Future of Viera y Clavijo Park with New CaixaForum Project
The Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council has partnered with the La Caixa Foundation to transform the long-abandoned Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park into a vibrant cultural center and botanical space, with renovations scheduled for completion by 2027.
After years of uncertainty and stalled projects, the future of the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park in Santa Cruz de Tenerife is finally secure. The City Council has officially handed over the site to the La Caixa Foundation, which will manage the space for the next decade with the goal of creating a premier cultural center.
This agreement ends a long period of neglect for the site, which was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1986. Originally built in the early 20th century as a school run by the Religious Community of the Assumption, the property has a rich history. After the city acquired it in 1978, the building—designed by architects Mariano Estanga and Antonio Pintor—served as a hub for municipal offices, a music school, and the Pérez Minik Theater. However, the building eventually fell into disrepair, and a later attempt to turn it into a Rodin Museum failed, leaving the site abandoned since 2009.
The new project, "CaixaForum Tenerife," aims to revitalize the area by hosting exhibitions, debates, concerts, and social programs. Under the agreement, the La Caixa Foundation will fund all programming and operations, while the City Council will oversee the building’s structural restoration. The first phase of renovations is scheduled for completion in 2026, with the auditorium reconstruction to follow in 2027.
The renovation will transform the 3,800-square-meter former school into a modern space featuring multipurpose rooms and a 250-square-meter permanent exhibition hall. The project also focuses on the outdoors, expanding the surrounding gardens into a 15,000-square-meter "green ring." This botanical space will preserve the site's century-old, 16-meter-tall kapok tree and will serve as an outdoor gallery for sculptures by artists such as Joan Miró, José Abad, and Manuel Drago.
This initiative aims to restore a site of significant historical value, including its 1921 neo-Gothic chapel, and integrate it into the La Caixa Foundation’s network of cultural centers. By moving forward with this plan, the City Council hopes to finally put an end to years of abandonment and return this landmark to the public.