What to See in Los Realejos - Top Sights and Attractions

The parish church of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción in the municipality of Los Realejos, island of Tenerife, in its current configuration, was built between 1697 and 1701 from a previous hermitage dedicated to Santa María, whose existence is recorded since at least 1516 and which depended on the Church of Santiago de Taoro. In 1533 it was granted the parochial benefit and became an independent community of the Church of Santiago. The original hermitage consisted of a single nave which, with the extension of the building to the north and west, came to form the nave of the spire. The raw material used was quarried stone from the quarry on the road to Icod; stone from La Dehesa for the cornices and more than two hundred slabs from Los Cristianos for the rest. The sacristy was built years later, in 1790, when the existing one was enlarged to house the furniture and jewellery owned by the church. With this enlargement, the temple was configured with the characteristics typical of 18th century Canarian churches: a main chapel connected to collateral sacristies and a rear chapel, joined to three naves with the side chapels. These side chapels have the typical Mudejar roof structure so characteristic of Canarian religious architecture. The three chapels of La Concepción are also separated by their corresponding arcades, which in this case incorporate two side chapels in the central nave that modify the symmetry of the temple.

The doorways, today, are typical of the Canarian style existing on the island. One of them, which belongs to a certain dependency located at a lower level than the floor of the temple, is of Gothic design with an ogee arch with complicated curves and details of the style in the projection that follows throughout the span. Of the three doorways, two are very similar, the one on the north side and the one on the right side of the façade. They consist of pilasters and entablature that cover the semicircular arch with typical plateresque decorations that is accentuated by the candlestick that loads on each pilaster. The third pilaster has ashlars recessed giving it a unique appearance.