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| Igueste de San Andrés - El Semáforo |
The Ministry of Finance and Public Function is putting the Punta de Anaga Semaphore Station up for public auction with a starting price set at 22,260.64 euros. The historic building, which turns 126 years old and has been included in the heritage red list due to its high degree of deterioration, passed into the hands of the State in 1970, when the Ministry of the Navy handed it over to the Treasury as it was considered unnecessary as a point for communication with ships.
The date set for this auction, which also includes two other properties, one in La Orotava and the other in La Laguna, will be October 26, 2021. But not everyone is happy about this: Mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, criticizes the decision of the central government and asks them to suspend the auction and rehabilitate the historic maritime signaling station for the "enjoyment of all".
The Semaphore of Punta de Anaga, according to the Santa Cruz chronicler, José Manuel Ledesma, was one of the first 20 electric semaphore stations that were built on the Spanish coast, by Royal Order on June 9, 1884. Its staff were made up of two lookouts and a signalman; the lookouts being chosen from among graduate officers of the reserve, navy boatswain or pilots of the Merchant Navy, all with more than five years of service. Built of red tuff, 222 meters above the cliff, it has a rectangular body, with two houses, a kitchen and a toilet, another rectangular body attached to the previous one, which served as a home for the orderly, and a third hexagonal body intended for an observatory.
El Estado subasta el Semáforo de Punta de Anaga por 22.000 euros
