Candelaria, Tenerife
Candelaria is a municipality with 26,134 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2013 ) to the east of the Canary island of Tenerife. It is with the neighboring municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the South motorway TF -1 and the old road of Santa Cruz de Tenerife - Adeje connected. Candelaria is located 20 kilometers southwest of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Other neighboring municipalities are El Rosario in the north, Arafo in the south, Santa Úrsula in the west and La Matanza de Acentejo in the northwest.
The municipality of Candelaria has an area of 49.32 km ² at an average height of 5 m above sea level.
Attractions
Candelaria is the most important Catholic pilgrimage site in the Canaries. In the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria ( Basilica of Candelaria), the figure of the patron saint of the Canary Islands, the Virgen de la Candelaria is worshiped. The figure said to have been found by two Guanche at the beach 100 years before the arrival of the Spaniards, but was in 1826 swept away by a storm surge from the chapel in which it was kept. Today's figure was created in 1830 by an older copy. Pilgrimages take place mainly on 2 February and on 14 and 15 August.
Diagonally opposite the church, on the sea side of the Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias, Nine -than-life statues of the famous Guanchenkönige that were called Menceys.