Villa for sale in Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife

A unique 17th century mansion house built in 1670 for the Military Governor of the island. In 1706, after the nearby port of Garachico was overrun by lava from an eruption of the Teide Volcano, the port and the governor moved to Santa Cruz, and the house lost its original purpose. Its use in the following years is unclear, though an Escritura of the property dates back to 1923. Around that time, there was a small shop in the front of the house, where the Nelson Study is now.

When the current owners purchased the house in 2004, it had been empty for 15 years. Over the last 18 years, they have restored the house using original stone where possible and tea wood throughout. Tea wood is a heavy indigenous resinous pine found in Tenerife and La Palma Islands, valued for its resistance to termites.

Originally, the ground floor was used mainly for stabling horses, while surrounding houses served as accommodation for staff associated with the governor.

The ground floor off the main entrance now houses the India room and the Study. The India room contains furniture and artifacts brought from India. The Study features paintings and memorabilia connected to Admiral Nelson, who attacked Tenerife, was defeated, and also lost his arm but recovered well and stayed with the governor for about a year before returning to England. Other portraits include Shakespeare and Henry VIII of England with his six wives, including Katherine of Aragon, as well as the Tzar and Tzarina of Russia, among others. The room also includes a lovely working fireplace.

From the entrance hall there is a central patio with a fish pond, a central fountain, and surrounding ferns and stone seating. From here, doors lead to the India room and the Study. There is also access to a lift to the two upper floors and a door to the Gallery, which houses 18 paintings of the Virgin Mary by different artists, all featuring a serene and tranquil style. The patio area also includes an exquisitely carved cabinet, desk, and chair thought to have belonged to an elite lawyer on the peninsula, as well as three Masonic chairs associated with the current owners’ Masonic temples in Central London. At the end of the patio there are two en-suite bedrooms with shower rooms. To the right, there is an entrance to a small shaded patio overlooked by the adjacent shower room window, and an adjoining sewing room. Next to the main staircase is an area not yet fully completed, offering an office with three additional rooms, another large entrance door to the street, and access to the upper level of the garden.

From the patio exit door is the house’s wardrobe area, with a fountain in front, then steps down to the garden and steps up to the water tank area for two private fresh-water sources, plus the laundry. There is also a casual cooking area with a stone table and benches with views over the garden. A stone staircase leads to the first floor dining area, with casual cooking below. Blue and white china complements the collection in the main kitchen.

From the patio, a main tea wood staircase leads to the large landing and into the three principal interconnecting rooms: the Drawing Room, Sitting Room, and Dining Room. These rooms are furnished with antique furniture, abundant paintings, wall brackets, and chandeliers throughout. Off the dining room, which seats 12, there is a closed tea wood balcony overlooking the garden. Curtains throughout the house are made by the Davila family.

The kitchen connects to the dining room and also has doors to the sitting room and the main landing. Antique carved sideboards and a carved cabinet with a kitchen dining table for six antique chairs, along with purpose-built storage, dominate the room. It includes marble-topped surfaces where appropriate and a large collection of blue and white china on the walls. Kitchen appliances are electric, including two Zanussi ovens, a Samsung fridge/freezer, two Lazer three-ring induction plates, an electric Salamander, a Bosch microwave oven, and a Siemens steamer oven.

From the main landing, with five marble side tables and a fascinating collection of religious statues, two doors open to a triangular walkway over the central patio. This level includes three bedrooms, two with magnificent four-poster beds and one with a Corona bed, all en-suite with shower rooms. The passage leads to a fourth bedroom with an adjacent room used as a dressing room, ready to become its shower room and wardrobe.

From the main landing, there is access to the staircase and lift for the library and the roof terrace above on the second floor.

The library runs the full length of the house and has an extensive collection of books, mainly in English, with some in Spanish and French, covering subjects from history and cooking to gardening, novels, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, plus art on the walls.

Two doors lead to the roof terrace with magnificent views of the Drago tree, the park, and the Teide Volcano on one side, and the banana fields and the sea on the other. The terrace is decorated with statues of griffins and dragons and plant troughs.

The garden is arranged in three tiers of height. It has another entrance from the street. The side door may also have been the original entry for number 9, which no longer exists (the property currently has numbers 7 and 9). In the garden there is a storage room and a pump room for the house’s water system.

The land is urban and subject to planning consent and could be developed. Planning consent that had expired was recently granted for a double garage, though it was not completed. Depending on the intended use of the main house, ideas have been proposed, including keeping the house as a residence with a garage and staff quarters above.

The neighborhood is very quiet, with the road being a cul-de-sac. At the end is the Chapel of Las Angustias and its statue of Mary of Angustias.