The greatest square in the Canary Islands and in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is called Plaza de Espaa (Spain). On the location of the old Castillo de San Cristóbal, a bastion designed to protect the island from pirates, it was constructed in 1929. Only a handful of the original building's walls are still visible today; these are shown in a gallery below the square. Between the Plaza de la Candelaria and the Avenida Martima connected to the harbour, this square is situated. Built in the end of 1787, the Alameda del Duque de Santa Elena is essentially inseparable from the square. It has the most vegetation in the square and is home to a marble fountain that was commissioned in Genoa the same year it was constructed. A few metres to the north of the Auditorio de Tenerife, the square is situated in the heart of the city.

Along with the Plaza del Cristo de La Laguna (in the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna) and the Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias (in the municipality of Candelaria), the Plaza de Espaa was awarded the title of "Plaza de Interés Insular" by the Cabildo of Tenerife at the end of the 1990s.

The Monument to the Fallen, a cross-shaped tower with a viewing platform at the top and a now-empty crypt at the foot, is in the centre of the plaza, which has a total area of 5,026 m2. During the Economic Command following the Civil War, Captain General Garcá Escámez had the idea to erect this memorial. A sculpture group created by Enrique Cejas Zaldvar and Alonso Reyes surrounds the base. The drawings were initialled on October 25, 1944. Both were given two months to model them, and at the conclusion of that time, the finished pieces were displayed in the Museo de Bellas Artes. Four sculptures make up the entire work: an allegory of the Homeland holding the Fallen; a winged woman representing Victory and alluding to those maritime expeditions that triumphantly returned to their native land; and two figures of soldiers resting with swords in their hands, signifying civic and military values, respectively. Bas-reliefs adorn the base's interior walls.
Monument in low relief.

Italian Fascist architecture had an impact on Francoist monumental architecture, such as the Monument to the Fallen.

The Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, who won a competition held by the Port Authority of the province of Tenerife, redesigned the square to their specifications. The proposal also incorporates the Muelle de Enlace, a complex that seeks access to the sea by way of a continuous space, into the city. As a result, it is known as the Muelle-Ciudad Project.

The steps that formerly surrounded the monument have been removed, and the square has been raised to become a platform that will eventually reach the sea. The new square includes an asphalt surface and a centre seawater lake with a built-in geyser that can be filled or depleted based on usage requirements. Marble aggregate combined with resins forms the floor of the building. Three pavilions for diverse purposes surround this lake, two of which have been landscaped using a design that was copyrighted by Patrick Blanc.

A collection of luminaires created specifically for the project, made up of drop-shaped components of three sizes held in place by cables between multiple poles, illuminates the entire plaza.

In addition to extensively renovating the monument, the project also built an underground gallery where visitors may view the original castle's base's ruins, which were discovered during construction. Additionally, the Andrés Amat de Tortosa, a military engineer, designed the arch of the adjacent Avenida Duque Santa Elena in 1787. It consists of a portico that is over 20 metres wide and 9 metres high, with two allegorical marble sculptures of Spring and Summer placed within. The portico is made up of a central arch, two lateral ones, and their corresponding buttresses.

With 300 specimens of different plant species, including flamboyant trees (also known as flame trees), Australian fig trees (large-leaved ficus), Indian laurels, jacaranda trees, pandanus, false pepper trees, Gabon tulip trees, cycas (also known as sago palm), feathery coconuts, cow feet, pygmy palms (or dwarf palms), canary palms, royal palms, Mexican palm (or golden fruit palms).

The Palacio Insular de Tenerife, which serves as the island's council chamber, the Sociedad Recreativa Casino de Tenerife building, the island's main post office, and several port-related facilities are all located in the Plaza de Espaa.

Three additional significant locations, including the Alameda del Duque de Santa Elena, constructed at the conclusion of 1787, are connected to it. It virtually makes up the entire square. The Plaza de la Candelaria, originally known as Plaza Real or Plaza de la Pila, was erected in honour of a basin or fountain that is still there today. It houses a marble fountain that was commissioned in Genoa the same year it was built and is also the part of the square with the most vegetation. As may still be seen on it, the latter was constructed in 1706. An 18th-century obelisk depicting the Triumph of Candelaria, a four-meter monument sculpted in Carrara marble by Pasquale Bocciardo, is located at the far end of the square opposite the fountain. Around a pyramidal shaft, it is made up of the Child and the Virgin of Candelaria (the patron saint of the Canary Islands).

This monument's pyramid is etched with the year 1778, despite the fact that it was purportedly built between 1768 and 1769. There is disagreement among historians, but some claim that the base and pyramidal shaft of the Pasquale Bocciardo-sculpted Carrara marble sculptures were ordered from a workshop on the peninsula after the Carrara marble images were shipped from Genoa.

The Plaza de la Candelaria leads to Calle del Castillo, Santa Cruz de Tenerife's main commercial thoroughfare, which is lined with significant structures like the Parliament of the Canary Islands, the Canary Islands Audit Office, the Palacio de Carta, the Palacio de la Capitana General de Canarias, and the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Chamber of Commerce's main office.

Similar to those in other major cities across the world, it is the city's tourist brand and can be seen at one end of the Plaza de Espaa, close to the lake.

Santa Cruz, the heart of Tenerife, is the slogan for the city that was represented by the physical building that was unveiled on December 14th, 2016. The building is 1.4 metres high and 11.1 metres long. 3 With the exception of the last "a" of the word "Santa," which is an inverted blue heart with another heart—in this case, a green one—placed in a natural position on top, all of the letters are made of galvanised sheet metal and are white. The sign is repainted in different colours and with different symbols at significant occasions. For example, in 2018 it was painted with the colours of the LGBT flag and Tras+ for International LGBT Pride Day and with the colours of the Canary Islands flag for Canary Islands Day. Tourists and visitors to the city frequently use the sign, one of the city's tourism landmarks, to pose for photos next to it.

Julio Nieto, a Basque artist, created a sculpture that is situated in the middle of the Plaza adjacent to the man-made lake. It is a five-meter-tall, 450-kilogram stainless steel sculpture that depicts a man as a tree and represents "the optimism of the human being, who, despite all his thoughts, gets along well."

It was first displayed in 2014 during a street exhibition in the Plaza. After that, it departed the city and travelled to a number of art galleries in other cities across the world, including Madrid, Barcelona, Baltimore, Miami, Krefeld, and New York.

Santa Cruz residents voiced a desire for the sculpture to stay in the city. It was given to the city of Santa Cruz in 2021 and put up permanently at the Plaza de Espaa.