Bien de Interés Cultural con la categoría de Monumento. 1986
In the middle of the 16th century, the last sugar mill on the island existed in Adeje, fed by the waters of the Barranco del Infierno ravine. This sugar mill was located in the Casa Fuerte before it was built and its production was the most important in Tenerife, at a time when the islands were supplying the European sugar market, which was a time of great economic activity.
The son of the Genoese Cristóbal de Ponte, Pedro de Ponte y Vergara, who settled in Adeje, requested in 1553 that a fortification be built to defend the area from the continuous pirate raids that ravaged the coast of Adeje. In 1555, it was authorised and in 1556 a fortress was built, which became the political, economic and social centre of the jurisdiction of Adeje for three centuries, under the Ponte family’s feudal regime.
It is located in the oldest part of the centre of Adeje, opposite the Church of Santa Úrsula and on a hilltop overlooking a wide stretch of coastline related to the defensive function of this fortification since the 16th century.
A fortified residence, a mixture of country house and fortress, with an almost square floor plan, it occupied an area of 9,024 ‘varas castellanas’ (7,200 square metres). It consisted of a castle and keep, storehouses, granaries, stables, a blacksmith’s shop, a bakery, ovens, living quarters for the servants and administrators, an oratory and the main palace. According to the French naturalist Berthelot, “the most important room is the Archive Room”, which had four large cupboards full of documents, defined by the historian Viera y Clavijo as “the Treasure of the Canary Islands”.
