The Guanche statues of Tenerife: a seven-stop route in bronze
On Tenerife, the menceys, the Guanche kings, don't only live in books. They stand at the entrance to a town, on a bend in the road, in the middle of a roundabout, or on the edge of a cliff. They are bronze statues, almost all put up between the 1990s and 2007, and together they make a route that takes you halfway round the island, from Adeje to Candelaria.
This guide is about the statues: where they are, who made them, who they portray and which ones you can still see today. For the history of the nine Guanche kingdoms, with a map, see The invisible map of Tenerife: nine territories between the sea and the Teide. For who the Guanches were, see The Guanches: who the first Canarians really were.
One thing before you set off. These figures are not portraits: nobody knows what a mencey looked like. They show how the island has chosen to remember them, and that is history too.
1. Adeje: Tinerfe the Great
The route starts where the tradition starts. Tinerfe the Great (Tinerfe el Grande), in the story handed down since the conquest, ruled the whole island from Adeje about a hundred years before the Castilians arrived, and after his death the land was divided among his sons. It is tradition, not proven fact, but it is what explains why there were nine kingdoms.
Where: on a roundabout on Avenida del Poniente, in the El Galeón area, at the entrance to the town of Adeje.
Who made it: the artist Inma Serrano, in 2003. It was put in place in 2005.
What to look for: in his hands he holds the añepa, the staff that stood for the mencey's power. At his feet, a stone carries two old quotations. One is by the friar Alonso de Espinosa, from 1590: for many years this island and its people were subject to a single king, the king of Adeje. The other, by Núñez de la Peña in the 17th century, gives him a name: the last king who ruled the island alone was called the Great Tinerfe.
2. Santiago del Teide: Alonso Díaz, the Guanche who sued
This is the most curious statue on the route, because it doesn't remember a battle. It remembers a lawsuit.
In front of the church of San Fernando, in the centre of Santiago del Teide, stands a bronze Guanche by the sculptor José Abad, unveiled on 5 October 2003. It portrays Alonso Díaz, son of Don Diego. According to the town council's own history, on 29 April 1509, after years of struggle, Alonso Díaz got the Adelantado Alonso Fernández de Lugo to compensate him for 200 goats he had taken from him. The same text notes that the area had belonged to the menceyato of Adeje.
Thirteen years after the conquest, a Guanche with a Castilian name made the conqueror of the island pay back what he had taken. If you want to know what happened to the Guanche population after 1496, read on in The Guanches after the conquest: what a cave in Buenavista del Norte tells us.
Where: Avenida de la Iglesia, opposite the church and the tourist office.
3. Los Realejos: Bentor at the Mirador de El Lance
Bentor was the last mencey of Taoro, Bencomo's successor. The sources disagree on whether he was his son or his grandson. According to legend, when the war was already lost, he threw himself from this cliff rather than surrender.
Where: the Mirador de El Lance viewpoint, in Icod el Alto. From here you can see the whole La Orotava valley, which was the heart of Taoro, Bentor's kingdom.
Who made it: the sculptor Carmen León, in 1996. It is a monumental bronze figure.
A recent detail: in January 2022 the statue was found covered in graffiti. It was restored, and the town council announced the work finished in February that year.
This is the stop with the best view on the whole route, and here the statue stands on the very spot of the story it tells.
4. La Orotava: Princess Dácil, from the car
On a roundabout on the El Ramal road (TF-211), in the Dehesa Baja area, there is a fountain with a bronze figure and an inscription: PRINCESA DACIL. It was made in 2003 by the La Orotava Municipal Art School (Escuela Municipal de Arte). On the upper edge of the pedestal's lower tier are four figures of the Tara idol, a fertility symbol from Gran Canaria. Why a Gran Canaria symbol ended up on a Tenerife fountain, we haven't found explained in any source.
Two things are worth knowing. The first is practical: it stands in the middle of a roundabout, so you see it from the car, without stopping. The second goes deeper: Dácil, Bencomo's daughter who falls in love with a Castilian captain, is a literary character. She appears in an epic poem published in 1604 by Antonio de Viana. We tell the whole story in Dácil: the princess who has been real for four centuries.
5. La Matanza de Acentejo: Tinguaro
The name of the town already tells the story (matanza means slaughter). Here, in the first battle of Acentejo, in 1494, the Guanches routed the troops of Alonso Fernández de Lugo. According to tradition, they were led by Tinguaro, Bencomo's brother.
Where: in the square in front of the town hall, next to the TF-217 road.
What it's like: bronze, more than 4 metres tall. It was unveiled on 1 May 2007.
Why we don't name the sculptor: the authorship of the statue ended up in court. In 2016 a court-appointed expert concluded that it resembled another sculptor's model, and we haven't found how the case ended. We'd rather not print a name that may not be the right one.
6. San Cristóbal de La Laguna: Bencomo, six metres tall
This is the biggest statue on the route. Bencomo, mencey of Taoro and leader of the resistance in the north, stands six metres tall here. José Abad made it in the late 1990s, for the 500th anniversary of the founding of La Laguna, and it stands in the area where, as the story goes, the battle of Aguere was fought, the battle in which Bencomo fell.
Where: on the Curva de Gracia bend, on the TF-180 road, between Gracia and La Cuesta.
Without a car: right next to it there is a bus stop called, how could it be anything else, Mencey Bencomo.
If you're already in La Laguna, the historic centre is very close. We cover it in What to see in La Laguna: the town that became a plan.
7. Candelaria: the empty square
The last stop is the best known and, right now, the only one where you won't see anything.
In the Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias, next to the basilica, the nine bronze menceys by José Abad stood from 1993, one for each kingdom. They stood with their backs to the ocean, facing the island, and for more than thirty years they were as much a part of the square as the basilica itself.
In July 2025, when the complete refurbishment of the square began, they were taken down. They are being kept at a TITSA (the island's bus company) site in Los Rodeos, with the promise that they will go back to their place when the work is finished. The local press puts the end of the refurbishment at around late 2027. Until then, the square has no menceys.
Here is a detail few people know. The 1993 bronzes were not the first: they replaced an earlier set in stone by Alfredo Reyes Darias (1959), which in 2000 was moved to the Rambla de los Menceyes promenade, also in Candelaria. In 2022 the town council announced a plan to restore them. We haven't been able to check what state they are in today, so if you are passing, see for yourself.
For the basilica and the story of the Virgin, read on in Virgin of Candelaria, patron saint of the Canary Islands: the story, the fiesta and the pilgrim road.
The route in a day
Three of these statues are by the same La Laguna sculptor, José Abad: the nine menceys of Candelaria, Bencomo in La Laguna and Alonso Díaz in Santiago del Teide. If you want a thread to tie the route together, that is one.
By car, in the order of this guide, it is about 125 kilometres and about two hours of driving without traffic. With real traffic, allow 20 to 30 per cent more, not counting stops:
Adeje → Santiago del Teide: about 25 km.
Santiago del Teide → Los Realejos (El Lance): about 37 km.
Los Realejos → La Orotava (Dácil's roundabout): about 13 km.
La Orotava → La Matanza: about 10 km.
La Matanza → La Laguna (Curva de Gracia): about 18 km.
La Laguna → Candelaria: about 23 km, on the southern motorway.
From Candelaria, the drive back to Adeje is about 65 kilometres. If you're coming from the north, do it the other way round: the order makes no difference.
Cover photo: the statue of Tinerfe the Great in Adeje. Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources
Adeje Town Council and Costa Adeje, "Arte en la calle": Tinerfe el Grande.
Plaque at the foot of the Tinerfe statue (Adeje), read from Mike Peel's 2020 photograph, Wikimedia Commons.
Santiago del Teide Town Council, "Breve referencia histórica"; Wikimedia Commons, category "Guanche Alonso Díaz (José Abad)".
Los Realejos Town Council, restoration of the Mencey Bentor sculpture (February 2022); Los Realejos Turismo, Mirador de El Lance.
vanderkrogt.net, entries for the Princesa Dácil fountain (La Orotava) and the Menceys of Candelaria.
La Matanza de Acentejo Town Council, places of interest; Diario de Avisos, 10 October 2016.
Spanish Wikipedia, José Abad (escultor) and Menceyato de Taoro.
RTVE Canarias (29 July 2025), Diario de Avisos (30 July 2025) and elDiario.es / Canarias Ahora, on the removal of the Candelaria menceys and the works on the square.
Atlántico Hoy (27 June 2022), on the restoration of the stone statues on the Rambla de los Menceyes.
OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, locations of the statues; distances calculated with OSRM.
