These free tours, included in the programme for the 25th anniversary of the declaration of the City as a World Heritage Site, will show the gestation of the city, the justice systems or the emergence of crops and manufacturing.

This week, La Laguna will be full of activities to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its declaration as a World Heritage City by Unesco and, among the proposals, it offers an interesting journey to the beginnings of its history, to the time when its streets were laid out, with a model inspired by the Wind Rose, and people from different origins arrived, bringing crops, trades and rules. This will be the starting point for the dramatised routes “La Laguna, la picota y con el mazo dando” which, over five days, will provide an insight into the life, justice systems and methods of punishment at the beginning of the 16th century.

This initiative of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the City Council of La Laguna, with the participation of the company Burka Teatro, will offer a total of 10 free routes through the historic centre, in the mornings and afternoons, from 3 to 7 December. All of them will start from the Plaza de Los Remedios (next to the Cathedral) to offer a guided tour through the streets of the historic centre, for which no prior registration is required.

“We are resuming our traditional commitment to dramatised routes in our historic centre, because theatre has proven to be an interesting educational resource that not only allows us to learn about the heritage and history of La Laguna, but also inspires and promotes the importance of its defence and protection”, explains the Councillor for Cultural Heritage, Adolfo Cordobés.

“On this occasion,” adds Cordobés, “it will allow us to delve into the creation of the city itself at the beginning of the 16th century and, with the help of historical figures, to deal with the distribution of land that took place at the end of the conquest of the island, some events that occurred in the city, the methods of justice and social coercion of the time or the appearance of different trades and manufactures, aspects that were fundamental in the development of the municipality and the island”.

The historian and populariser Néstor Verona will accompany the Burka Teatro company throughout the tour to explain the historical events that will be recounted and the different heritage elements that will be visited along the way. “We propose a journey back to the 16th century, to the time when the city was being laid out and when the historic centre of La Laguna was still to be built”, explains Verona.

The historian points out that the routes will allow us to learn more about “the arrival of the first settlers, from different origins, and the new crops they introduced, such as flax for making cloth, as well as their correlation with the appearance of the fulling mills for the development of the textile industry and the origin of the profession of laundresses in the Canary Islands”.

He also stresses that “the route will try to depict the arrival on the island of new institutions, such as the justice system, for which the actors and actresses will recreate what the pillory was like, a coercive element and method of punishment that was introduced in the then Villa from the beginning of the 16th century onwards”.

Timetable

“La Laguna, la picota y con el mazo dando” will start this Tuesday (3 December) at 18:00 hours and, as its premiere coincides with the celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, sign language interpreters will be available throughout the tour. The routes will continue from 4 to 7 December with two daily tours, at 11:00 and 18:00, and will end on Sunday with a departure at 11:00 in the morning.