TORRE DEL CONDE

It is the main military work built in the Castilian style that remains of the fortifications of San Sebastián de la Gomera. This massive building, with a square base, is made of red brick and topped by four turrets. This fifteen-metre high, forty-metre wide tower with two-metre thick walls was built by Count Hernán Peraza the Elder in 1447, two years after he conquered La Gomera. His son Hernán Peraza the Younger then reigned with his wife, the beautiful Beatriz de Bobadilla, former mistress of King Ferdinand of Aragon. He had married her by order of Queen Isabella of Castile in return for her laundering in the murder of Juan Rejón, conqueror of Gran Canaria. But Peraza the Younger behaved like a tyrant and was assassinated in 1488 by the Guanches. Beatriz escaped the indigenous revolt by taking refuge with her children in the Torre del Conde. The Spanish troops of Gran Canaria came to his aid and put an end to the uprising in blood. It welcomed as illustrious guests Christopher Columbus, Americo Vespucci and Hernán Cortés. An emblematic silhouette of the city, this tower surrounded by a park of the same name displays ancient maps of the island of La Gomera as well as plans of the ancient fortress. In 2017, an investment of nearly 120,000 euros made it possible to carry out work to drain off infiltrations that could damage it, but also to renovate the façade by treating the red stone that surrounds it.