The town of Montaña de Cardones arose from an old pre-Hispanic settlement established on the southern face of the mountain itself, protected from the trade winds. It originally covered the Cardones ravine, El Valle, Rosa Silva and El Carril.

The name of Cardones is believed to come from the 18th century, possibly much earlier, in reference to the local vegetation, Canarian cactus spurge, which covered the entire mountain.
The local population has always largely been concerned with farming and livestock breeding and this was the case up to the 1970’s, mainly banana production. Indeed, the patron saint of Cardones is St. Isidore the Farmer, because of the large number of farm workers.

This town has always been somewhat singular, and it already had a school of its own in 1830, and, according to Pedro Marcelino Quintana, building started on the Chapel of St. Isidore the Farmer in 1897. It consisted of a single transept and is built on land donated by sisters Luisa and Sebastiana Manrique de Lara. Consecrated in 1902, it became a parish thirteen years later.

The Church had a single transept until 1923, when the first stones of the side transepts were laid, and this work was completed in 1925. Nevertheless, the principal facade, in neo-Gothic style, was started in 1928. Between 1995 and 1996, nearly all the stone motifs needed to be restored because they were in very bad condition. The work was carried out mainly by Félix Rodríguez, Manuel Marrero and Fernando Rodríguez, Arucas stone workers.

Next to this emblematic building there are others which, although much more modest, reflect the idiosyncrasy of the town. For example, in Avenida Pedro Morales Déniz there are some houses with quarry stone decorations, such as the office of Pedro Morales Déniz, built in 1910; the houses located on the right-hand side of the road, dating from the late 19th and early 20th century, and the two-storey house, more important in our opinion not only because of its height but also because of the elegance of its stone work (end of the 19th century). Finally, we have the Casa de José Fariña, dating from the beginning of the 20th century, with an unusual entrance porch, and the series of small houses in Calle San Isidro.

This architectural heritage is accompanied by another heritage of an ethnographical nature, including irrigation channels, water distribution boxes, and so on, of which one outstanding example, because of the local inhabitant’s commitment to recover it, is the spring known as “Fuente de Cardones”.