Torre del Conde is a fortress from the 15th century located in the Villa de

San Sebastián de La Gomera San Sebastián de La Gomera is the capital and a municipality of La Gomera in the Canary Islands, Spain. It also hosts the main harbour. The population was 8,699 in 2013,Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

). It is a military-type building. Its function was mainly of representation of the manorial power, and it counted on the lack of modern weapons on the part of the natives. Its location next to the port at some distance from it, with no place for firearms and at the bottom of a valley, confirms this theory. It was ordered to be built by the Count of La Gomera

Hernan Peraza the Elder Hernán (or Fernán) Peraza Martel also known as Hernán/Fernán Peraza the Elder (El Viejo), (Seville, c. 1390 – San Sebastián de La Gomera, 1452) was a Castilian nobleman and Conquistador, and the territorial lord of the Canary Islands in ...

between 1447 and 1450, and the stately elites of

La Gomera La Gomera () is one of Spain's Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. With an area of , it is the third smallest of the eight main islands of this archipelago. It belongs to the province of Santa Cruz de Tene ...

took refuge there during the Rebellion of the Gomeros. Possibly at that time it was the center of a larger group of temporary or minor fortifications. Of the towers built during the

Conquest of the Canary Islands The conquest of the Canary Islands by the Crown of Castille took place between 1402 and 1496 and described as the first instance of European settler colonialism in Africa. It can be divided into two periods: the Conquista señorial, carried out ...

(Añazo, Gando, etc.), it is the only one that is preserved today. It is in the late

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style, it has a prismatic shape, 15 meters high, and about 40 meters in perimeter, with walls two meters thick. It is whitewashed, with red stone blocks in the corners. It has the honor of being the southernmost medieval (specifically Gothic) construction that we have news of. Its original design underwent several reforms, with Jacome Pelearo Fratin and Leonardo Torriani. Some of its most illustrious guests have been

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

, Amerigo Vespucci and

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...

. It was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument on 13 December 1990. It was declared a

Bien de Interés Cultural A Bien de Interés Cultural is a category of the heritage register in Spain. The term is also used in Venezuela and other Spanish-speaking countries. The term literally means a "good of cultural interest" (" goods" in the economic sense) and incl ...

(Asset of Cultural Interest) according to the Order of 2 July 1993.

References

{{Reflist Towers in Spain 15th-century architecture in Spain Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife