Town Hall Square

It is apparently the only place in Tenerife that is shown on national television absolutely every year. Every year, Tenerifenos, or locals, and thousands of tourists bravely line up for kilometers to climb up from one wing of the town hall to the second floor, and then they have a few minutes to walk step by step along the corridor with open windows to look down at this year’s miracle, that is, a sand carpet created on this very square. In 1847 Leonor del Castillo made the first sand carpet for her house, with dimensions of one and a half by three and a half meters. A drawing made by one of her assistants has been preserved to this day. Today, sand and flower carpets are also made in other cities on the north shore, but nowhere else are alfombras, or flower and sand carpets, so massive as in La Orotava. Literally, the entire city center is one flower and sand carpet.