Fuente Santa (La Palma)
Fuente Santa (holy spring) is a hot spring of up to 60 degrees, which is located on the southern tip of the Canary Island of La Palma in the municipality of Fuencaliente . It was used as a healing spring in the 16th and 17th centuries until the spring was completely buried in 1677 when the San Antonio volcano erupted. It took over 300 years until the spring was rediscovered in 2005 at "Playa de Echentive" in the municipality of Fuencaliente. The spring was originally called "Fuente Caliente" (hot spring) and gave the municipality of Fuencaliente its name. Because of its healing powers, it was later renamed “Fuente Santa” (Holy Spring).
history
The original inhabitants of La Palma already knew the spring, which they called "Tagragito", which means hot water. The source consisted of two small ponds that were located at the foot of a 150 meter high cliff on the island's south beach. The level in the ponds fluctuated with the tide and with it a higher or lower water temperature arose. The pond, which is closer to the cliff and was dedicated to San Lorenzo , had a temperature of over 40 degrees. At the second pond, which is closer to the sea, dedicated to San Blas , the temperature was 30 degrees.
Soon after the conquest of La Palma in 1493, the Spaniards became aware of the hot and healing spring in the south of the island. Its medicinal properties related to diseases such as leprosy , syphilis , elephantiasis , rheumatism and diseases of the skin and digestive system, which the Spanish conquerors knew how to use, because the venereal disease syphilis was widespread among the soldiers.
The Franciscan Gaspar Frutuoso gave the first written testimony of the source in his book "Saudades da Terra". 50 years later, around 1601, the Franciscan Fray Abreu Galindo noted that the source by the sea is so hot at low tide that it cannot be used. The news of the healing properties of the spring spread quickly and reached as far as Europe and America and attracted numerous wealthy patients. This created a need for services for the sick, to care for them, to offer them accommodation and food. It brought the residents of La Palma a relative wealth and created the still existing place Las Indias , near the source. The spring water was also taken to be transported in tanks to Antwerp and Cuba .
With the eruption of the San Antonio volcano in 1677, which lasted for a whole year, the spring was completely buried by the mass of lava flowing into the sea. The coast in the area of the source extended 300 meters towards the sea. Already in 1683 the residents tried to find the source again, supported by patients looking for healing, but without finding it. When the Teneguía volcano erupted in 1971 , the place was again covered by lava flows. For more than three centuries the source was searched in vain.
Rediscovery of the source
It was not until 2005 that the source was rediscovered during excavation work on Playa Echentive in Fuencaliente. Ancient maps and writings such as the study of the San Antonio volcano lava path were of great help in the search. To locate the source more precisely and to avoid unnecessary destruction of the existing lava landscape, several boreholes were drilled along the coastal road (LP 207) and parallel to the old cliff, with temperatures between 29 and 45 degrees inside. The position of the borehole with the highest temperature indicated the location of the source.
The tunnel work in the volcanic soil to the spring proved extremely difficult. The lava layer covering the source consisted of loose and unstable slag, which caused several collapses during the work. The tunnel walls therefore had to be supported with a steel framework and in some areas additionally strengthened by injecting cement slurry. After eight years of work and € 712,000 investment costs, the spring was reopened.
The gallery measures 219 meters and is divided into two sections, a straight line of 99 meters and two branches of 60 meters. A 60 meter thick layer of porous lava lies over the gallery. There are five natural pools in the gallery, to which thermal water flows. There are different water temperatures in the basins, in the first it is 30 to 33 degrees, in the next 42 to 43 degrees and in the other three the temperature can rise to 45 degrees.
The spring water was tested for its healing properties by the Oliver Rodés Laboratory in Barcelona and this has been confirmed. It has a high concentration of calcium in a carbonic acid-bicarbonate mixture and contains other trace elements. Spring water of similar quality is only found in Vichy , France and Bad Nauheim , Germany.
In 2007 the source was open to the public for the first and only time for four days. Since then, efforts have been made to build a thermal bath here. In November 2014, the competition for the construction of a medicinal bath at the Holy Spring was announced in the European Official Journal.
literature
Carlos Soler Liceras, La Historia de la Fuente Santa , Turquesa SL, 2009, 2nd Edicion ( ISBN 84-95412-74-8 ), 428 pages (with extensive illustrations of the construction of the Fuente Santa Gallery).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Carlos Soler Liceras, technical direction of the development of the source, La Fuente Santa: Leyenda y Realidad , Centro de Iniciativas y Turismo Insular Tedote La Palma, June 11, 2014.
- ↑ Carlos Soler Liceras, La Fuente Santa: Leyenda y Realidad , Ilustre Colegio Oficial de Geologos., 2008
- ↑ Fuente Santa y Playa de Echentive
- ↑ Rosa Rodríguez, La Fuente Santa se hace balneario , Canarias7 September 15, 2017.
- ↑ Carlos Soler Liceras, Al pie de la Fuente Santa (At the foot of the Holy Spring ) , Diario de Avisos, October 30, 2005.
- ↑ Manfred Betzwieser, Fuente Santa - healing spring with miraculous water (with images inside the spring) , August 1, 2014.
- ↑ Tomaso and his team worked for La Fuente Santa for a year with a lot of love and respect , La Plama 24, September 5, 2014.
- ↑ Elke Backert, Das Heilwasser von Vichy , June 13, 2004.
- ^ Healing springs and drinking fountains in Bad Nauheim
- ↑ For four days the "Holy Spring" could be visited at Fuencaliente , Wochenblatt - The newspaper of the Canary Islands, June 23, 2007.
- ↑ Fuente Santa: This is how the thermal baths of Fuencaliente should look , Wochenblatt - The newspaper of the Canary Islands, August 20, 2016.
- ↑ Fuente Santa La Palma: Spa competition expanded , La Palma 24, January 13, 2015.