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Santa Cruz is the capital of Tenerife, with over 220,000 people living there, the City can be found on the Northeast coast of Tenerife and Santa Cruz has a huge port. The enormous harbour holds container ships, cruise ships, ferries and jet foils.
Santa Cruz is surrounded by mountains rising to 1000m Santa Cruz does not offer a lot for sightseeing but makes up for shopping, visitors begin at the Plaza de España on the sea front and work their way up Plaza de Candelaria, these are excellent places to shop with designer clothes which can be purchased very cheaply.
Santa Cruz is characterised for its nightlife consisting of discotheques and pubs in the Marina park named after César Manrique, Avenida 3 de mayo and Residencial Anaga, as well as pubs in La Noria street and surroundings. The city is also renowned for its massive, popular and at the same time sophisticated carnival, one of the biggest in the World, declared of International Tourist Interest after general Franco´s death. It takes the city by storm in February or March every year.
Due to the strategic location of Tenerife on the route between the Mediterranean and the Americas, it was attacked a number of times by the English and the Dutch. In particular, Santa Cruz Bay was the scene of two notable naval engagements involving two of the most famous British Admirals.
In 1656, Admiral Robert Blake totally destroyed a Spanish silver fleet of 16 ships for the loss of one of his own, despite being under fire from shore batteries and attacking and withdrawing on the tide. 50 years later, the British under John Gennings were defeated when they attacked the island on November 6, 1706 during the War of the Spanish Succession.
In 1797 Admiral Horatio Nelson met with bloody defeat in an attempt to storm the harbour. It was on Santiago's day and that is the reason for having Santiago's sword cutting three lions head as a symbol of the British defeat.
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