1. THE CHURCH OF SANTIAGO APOSTOL According to the historian Millares Torres:”On the morning of July 25th, when the church celebrates the Santiago festivity, five Guanche kings-Bencomo, Beneharo, Acaymo, Tegueste and Zebenzui – went across the ravine which separated one camp from the other. There the general came to meet them with open flags, small drums, bugles and, accompanied by some of his main officers, he kindly embraced Bencomo”. This event led to the completion of the conquest and final incorporation of the Canary Islands to the Kingdom of Castile. Castilians very soon laid down the foundations of a church and set about building it “with the magnificence that time and their situation permitted”.
This it was possible to consecrate the first Christian church in Tenerife, the current one of Santiago Apóstol in Realejo alto, from whose rough baptismal font, and according to a very ancient tradition followed by the poet Antonio Viana and the historians Juan Núñez de la Peña and José de Viera y Clavijo, the nine valiant Guanche Menceys, together with many other distinguished natives, received the waters of baptism. The recommended visit to the town of Los Realejos starts in the Church of Santiago Apóstol, situated in between the avenue of Los Remedios and the road of El Medio de Arriba. It was declared National Historical Monument in 1983 and has got among its valuable artistic treasures the oldest pieces which remain in the Orotava Valley, “the triptych of Santiago”, a Flemish piece of the first quarter of the XVI century and ascribed to the master de Delft.
Having its origin in a first building covered by a simple thatched roof, a temple of three naves was erected, where the central one was designed by Juan Benítez in the first decade of the XVII century. The main chapel was finished about 1667. The following bodies were raised in successive stages, whose works finished around 1730. Forty years later the tower is elevated ending in a sharp – pointed spire, which nowadays has turned into a symbol of the municipality. In the inner part we can contemplate valuable artistic pieces coming from local and foreign workshop. So we can emphasise, besides the above – mentioned Triptych of Santiago, the altarpieces of El Nazareno, La Misericordia, our lady of Los Remedios or that of Santa Bárbara among others; the pictorial pieces, sculptures and processional images, likewise a great number of craftsmanship pieces in precious metals, among the most outstanding, it is the filigree work Cross from 1677. It is worth noting, in the same way, the three stonework fronts, the main one that from the primitive factory with Renaissance shapes. The one in the southern flank, raised by Manuel Penedo in 1627, and the one in the northern flank related to its homonyms of the nearby church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, which presents classicistic influences.
In front of this temple, surrounded by the square devoted to Viera y Clavijo, stands the building which some years ago was the old Town Hall and where nowadays the municipal library is placed.