Alonso Fernández de Lugo was a Spanish military man, conquistador, city founder, and administrator. He conquered the islands of La Palma (1492–1493) and Tenerife (1494–1496) for the Castilian Crown; they were the last of the Canary Islands to be conquered by Europeans. He was also the founder of the towns of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Santa Cruz de La Palma. One biographer has written that his personality was a “terrible mixture of cruelty and ambition or greed, on one part, and on the other a great capacity and sense for imposing order and government on conquered lands,” a trait found in the conquistadors of the New World.
The native kings of Tenerife surrender to Alonso Fernández de Lugo, 25 July 1496.
Church of Santo Domingo, Santa Cruz de la Palma. Built on foundations of hermitage of San Miguel (Saint Michael) founded by Fernández de Lugo on 14 May 1506. Saint Michael is the patron saint of Flanders, where many colonists in La Palma originated.
Fernández de Lugo presenting the captured native kings of Tenerife to Ferdinand and Isabella
Commemorative plaque in the Cathedral of La Laguna in Tenerife, where the mortal remains of Fernández de Lugo.
La Palma, also known as La isla bonita and historically San Miguel de La Palma, is the most northwesterly island of the Canary Islands, Spain, which is a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in Macaronesia in the North Atlantic Ocean. La Palma has an area of 708.32 square kilometres (273.48 sq mi) making it the fifth largest of the eight main Canary Islands. The total population at the start of 2023 was 84,338, of which 15,522 lived in the capital, Santa Cruz de La Palma and 20,375 in Los Llanos de Aridane. Its highest mountain is the Roque de los Muchachos, at 2,426 metres (7,959 ft), being second among the peaks of the Canaries after the Teide massif on Tenerife.
Satellite view of La Palma
Satellite image of La Palma, with the Caldera de Taburiente visible (north is to the lower right)
Crater of San Antonio volcano (last erupted 1677)
A view of the island looking south