The adelantado Alonso Fernández de Lugo founded Santa Cruz de La Palma on 3^rd of May 1493, thus completing the conquest of the island, which began on the beaches of Tazacorte on 29^th of  September 1492, the feast day of the archangel Saint Michael, who gave the island its name: San Miguel de La Palma.

In a short time, Santa Cruz de La Palma became one of the most important cities in the archipelago, with an urban layout in the Renaissance fashion of the ‘Maritime City’ and an example for the new American cities, with noble houses, chapels, churches and convents. This is the case of the convent of the Order of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, founded under the name of San Miguel de La Palma in 1530 by the evangeliser of the New World Fray Domingo de Mendoza on a chapel erected by the adelantado Fernández de Lugo to the archangel, patron saint of the island.

Fray Domingo de Mendoza established in the Canary Islands the first three male convents of the royal islands, that of San Pedro Mártir, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in 1522; that of La Laguna, in 1527; and that of Santa Cruz de La Palma, in 1530. As is constant in their foundations, the Dominicans settled in the area opposite to that previously occupied by the Franciscans. Thus, in the capital of La Palma, they were located at the southern end, while the sons of St. Francis of Assisi had settled at the other end of the city in 1508. In July 1553, Santa Cruz de La Palma was taken by French Protestant pirates under the command of François Le Clerc, nicknamed ‘Pie de Palo’, who sacked and burnt down houses, churches and convents. After this episode, the Dominican convent was immediately rebuilt, becoming one of the most beautiful convents of this order.  With a chair of philosophy and theology, it was one of the main convents on the islands for its architectural brilliance, as well as in the arts and letters.

 Due to its geographical location, high above the port, the convent house was very beautiful, with a large square bordered on the north by the convent of the Dominican nuns of Santa Catalina de Siena, founded in 1624, now the Teatro Circo de Marte and the multi-purpose building of the city council; and on the south by the San Telmo neighbourhood. The Dominican convent of San Miguel de las Victorias was extinguished with the confiscation on 27 April 1836. Today, the site is occupied by the ‘Alonso Pérez Díaz’ Secondary School, the first secondary school created on the island in 1932. The old porter’s lodge of the convent is preserved here, where the fresco of the Cristo de la Portería, an ancient devotion among the citizens of the city, can be found.