Las Ruinas de Gordejuela

The ruins of Gordejuela water pumping station is one the most beautiful ruins on the planet. It is a building with about five floors that is located on the cliff at 200 meters above sea level. This water elevator, also known as the Hamilton House was built at the beginning of the 20th century in 1903 and housed the first steam engine on the island of Tenerife had and served to bring irrigation water to the crops. The Hamilton family, still of great importance in Tenerife, arrived on the Island at the beginning of the 18th century. They were producers and exporters of bananas, tomatoes and potatoes, they had a shipping company and operated with coal ships. The pumping station was located in an old flour mill. It began to lift 4800 cubic meters of water per day to a twelve-kilometre aqueduct for distribution through the valley of La Orotava. The total cost of the installation exceeded one million pesetas, which had serious financial consequences for the developer company, whose expectations were frustrated due to the crisis in the fruit trade, so that it was finally sold in 1919. Shortly after that the building was abandoned. For decades, the ruins of the water lift remained forgotten and practically unknown to the outsiders of Los Realejos. They began to become popular as a result of the conditioning of the tourist trail from the nearby Rambla de Castro.