Santa Cruz Church of the Immaculate Conception

The bell tower finds you first. It rises over the rooftops and stays in sight from well across the city, and it went up in 1786, more than a century after a fire in 1652 destroyed the earlier church.

Inside, five naves run side by side under coffered wooden ceilings in the Mudéjar manner, a plan no other church in the Canary Islands has. The objects carry the city's own story. The Cross of the Conquest (Santa Cruz de la Conquista), planted by Alonso Fernández de Lugo when the city was founded, is kept here and gave Santa Cruz its name. A small fifteenth-century Gothic image of Our Lady of Consolation was the first Virgin venerated in the city. The high altar holds an Immaculate Conception by the Canarian sculptor Fernando Estévez, St James, the city's patron, has his image here, and the organ came from London in 1862.

• The bell tower cannot be climbed.
• The tower is easy to spot from afar and the entrance takes some finding: walk round the building before deciding the church is shut.
• Allow 15–20 minutes for the interior.
• There are no toilets in the church; public toilets stand about 200 m away, one of them free.
• It is a working parish church, so sightseeing waits while Mass is on.

The Iglesia de la Concepción stands on its own square in the centre of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the tower is the landmark to walk towards. Two stops, La Concepción and Fuente Morales, lie about 50–60 m away in a straight line, so the last stretch on foot is over almost as soon as it starts.

Drivers have a car park about 110 m away and a paid one about 230 m away. A tourist office sits about 300 m from the church, worth a stop for a city map if you are carrying on through Santa Cruz.

Best: outside the hours of Mass, when you can walk all five naves and the interior is at its quietest.

Avoid: Sunday mornings, unless you have come for the service.

This is the city's main place of worship, and its parish fills it on Sundays; at the end of a day on foot in Santa Cruz, a quiet weekday hour here is the better visit.

The Iglesia de la Concepción is a working parish church and the city's main place of worship. During a service, stay at the back, keep your voice down and hold off on photographs until it ends. Dress as you would for any Catholic church in Spain: covered shoulders and no beachwear are the respectful norm.