The city of Orotava was laid by the Spaniards at the beginning of the 16th century, but many years ago the Guanches lived there for many centuries. Orotava (or La Orotava) is located in a beautiful valley with rich soil in the northern part of Tenerife, and the settlers attracted good conditions for farming. The Spanish intervention turned the village of Aborigines into a very European city at that time, the architecture of which, typical of Canar, has survived to this day almost in its original form.

History lovers will see here many traditional mansions with wooden balconies decorated with hand carvings. In particular, the most famous of them (he is called - "House with balconies"), in which a historical museum and workshop is open: they create and sell entertaining souvenirs. On the contrary there is another interesting mansion, "Tourist House": it is the oldest building in the city, whose age equals nearly 500 years. Tourists can go inside and view the interior

But most of the guests go to Orotava not only and not so much to inspect old houses and balconies - after all, their can be found in the capital . The special attraction of Orotava is given by the annual festival, which is called the Carpet Day . The carpet day is timed to the Catholic holiday of the Corpus Christi Corpus Christi . The action takes place in June and to the carpets in the traditional sense e has little . In this case, it refers to the bright panels, which on this day will be paved with all the main streets and squares . paintings spread of colored sand, stones, shells, dyed sawdust and, of course, flower petals @ .@@

The spectacle is a colorful, fun, but, alas, short-lived. Only one giant "carpet" at the mayor's office begins to spread on the square for a month and a half before the holiday. From all the other panels laid out in the morning, after dark, there is no trace. Naturally, on this day in Orotava most people, and park in the center positively nowhere.

On other days in the town you can relax quietly, peacefully and pleasantly. In Orotava there is a botanical garden: it is not very impressive in comparison with continental European, but still the flora of the tropics and subtropics is represented in it quite widely. The botanical garden was taken by plants from different continents, and now its collection numbers more than three thousand copies.

Part of the territory is the Victoria Park - it is a specially designed garden for walking, where it is good to relax in the shade. A special attraction of the Victoria Park is the elaborate and magnificent tomb of Rocha made of delicate Carrara marble. Another curious architectural object of the city is the gray-white baroque church of Concepción with two symmetrical bell towers and an almost flirtatious decoration of the facade. It is considered almost the most interesting in the Canaries

Orotava, panorama

Picture from flowers, Orotava

Orotava in the evening

Orotava

Orotava Gardens