On Plaza del Adelantado, number 10, in the heart of the historic center of San Cristóbal de La Laguna and next to the Hotel Nivaria, stands Casa Anchieta, one of the city's most historically significant buildings. It was in this house — originally built in the 16th century and rebuilt in the 17th century by Diego Benítez de Anchieta — that José de Anchieta, known as Father Anchieta, lived during his childhood and early youth, before leaving for Portugal and, later, Brazil, where he would become one of the most important evangelizers in the history of colonial America. The building was declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 1986 and, after several transformations over the centuries — it was the residence of the poet Manuel Verdugo Bartlett, the seat of the Virgen de la Candelaria Women's Residence College and of the Canary Islands School of Actors, and even temporarily housed the Diocese of Tenerife after a fire — it stood abandoned from 2007 onward.
The La Laguna City Council began a full restoration of the building in 2021, with a budget of around 710,000 euros, which made it possible to recover original elements from its different periods — 16th- and 17th-century posts and beams, open galleries around the central courtyard — and adapt it to 21st-century uses without losing its heritage value. The works, completed in 2024, have turned Casa Anchieta into a space open to the public and to cultural outreach, with the Department of Historical Heritage's stated goal of turning it into an interpretation center dedicated to the life and work of the saint born in La Laguna, with rooms devoted to his childhood in La Laguna, his family, his education in Coimbra, and his entry into the Society of Jesus. The mayor of La Laguna himself has stressed that the recovery of this building "of high heritage value" further strengthens the historic ensemble of Plaza del Adelantado, alongside the Ermita de San Miguel, the future municipal market, and the restoration of the Palacio de Nava.
It was precisely in this space, now restored and turned into a venue for cultural and academic gatherings, that the sessions of the course "Fighting the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property" were held on July 28 and 29, 2026, as part of the II International Campus City of La Laguna. The coordinator of the Playa Paraíso 2010-Adeje Technology Park initiative, Miguel Muñoz, attended the Wednesday, July 29 session, giving him a first-hand look both at the content of the talks and at the very building hosting them — a fitting symbol for a course focused on the protection of cultural heritage.
José de Anchieta: From the Historic Center of La Laguna to the "Apostle of Brazil"
José de Anchieta was born in San Cristóbal de La Laguna on March 19, 1534, the son of João Lopes de Anchieta, a Basque nobleman related to the family of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, and Mencía Díaz de Clavijo y Llarena, a descendant of the conquerors of Tenerife. He lived in the family home until the age of fourteen, when he moved to Coimbra (Portugal) to study at the Royal College of Arts and Humanities, attached to the university. There he entered the Society of Jesus and, at just nineteen, set sail as a missionary bound for Brazil, arriving on July 13, 1553.
In Brazil, Anchieta carried out intense evangelizing, educational, and literary work: together with Father Manuel da Nóbrega, he took part in founding the Jesuit college that gave rise to the city of São Paulo on January 25, 1554, and also contributed to the settlement that would later lead to the founding of Rio de Janeiro. He learned and systematized the Tupi language, in which he wrote grammars, catechisms, and religious plays, earning him recognition as one of the founders of theater and poetry in Brazil. In 1563 he offered himself as a hostage to the Tamoio tribe, who had risen up against Portuguese colonization, remaining captive for several months — a period during which, according to tradition, he composed his famous poem to the Virgin — until he and Nóbrega secured peace. He served as Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Brazil between 1577 and 1585, and spent his final years, after retiring to Reritiba (today the town of Anchieta, in the state of Espírito Santo), caring for the poorest and for threatened indigenous groups, until his death on June 9, 1597.
For his role as evangelizer, educator, and founder of cities, José de Anchieta is known as the "Apostle of Brazil." He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980 and canonized by Pope Francis on April 3, 2014, through an equivalent canonization, becoming the second saint born in the Canary Islands — after Pedro de Betancur — and one of the religious figures with the greatest shared standing between Spain and Brazil. His figure today symbolizes the historic bond between La Laguna, the city where he was born and which still preserves his childhood home as a place of memory, and Brazil, the country to which he devoted his entire missionary life and in whose founding as a modern nation he played a prominent role.
Links of Interest
–Official website of the International Campus (context for the course held at Casa Anchieta):
https://campusinternacionalciudaddelalaguna.es/
–Casa del Santo Padre Anchieta — La Laguna Tourism:
https://share.google/PjhEsaPWs7TX1WzR1
–Las Medianías de Tenerife — Tenerife Medianías (Midlands) Development Project:
https://share.google/UhE4lZyDKqTAVySCF
–PDF document on Casa Anchieta or its heritage surroundings (46.pdf):
https://share.google/73tSb9Rl7eC2tzlrZ
–"Así es la nueva vida de la Casa Anchieta" ("This Is the New Life of Casa Anchieta") — report on the building's full restoration, Diario de Avisos (April 9, 2024):
https://share.google/Q4vXVKw1TXkDbQ4ar
–"Padre Anchieta, el apóstol del Brasil" ("Father Anchieta, the Apostle of Brazil") — biographical profile of the La Laguna-born saint:
https://share.google/7Hq9WpK9rwv3JLS21
–"Anchieta, San José de" — Dictionary of the Cultural History of the Church in Latin America:
https://share.google/vlwlQYggGeacOhonz
–"ANCHIETA; San José de" — direct entry in the Dictionary of the Cultural History of the Church in Latin America (DHIAL):
https://dhial.org/diccionario/index.php?title=ANCHIETA;_San_Jos%C3%A9_de
–PDF document with further information on José de Anchieta (2307.pdf):
https://share.google/aZRclj3AXyxpMvjRt
–"José de Anchieta, el apóstol del Brasil" ("José de Anchieta, the Apostle of Brazil") — España en la Historia:
https://share.google/3XOf9wVmUf7OghpIn
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