Chipude is a town on the island of La Gomera (Canary Islands, Spain) located in the upper part of the municipality of Vallehermoso.
Chipude was a Guanche language voice whose meaning, according to the Portuguese chronicler Gaspar Fructuoso (1590), is "land of palms". In many maps and censuses of population it appears with the denomination of Temocodá, voice also guanche, but that would make reference only to a concrete zone of Chipude. Currently, Chipude is often identified with El Cercado, an area of important pottery tradition where pre-colonial techniques of ceramic production survive.
The occupation of the lands of Valle Gran Rey for the cultivation of sugarcane caused the highlands, previously covered with laurel forest, to be cleared for the cultivation of grain that would supply the population. Hermitages are also created in Chipude (Hermitage of Our Lady of Candelaria) and Arure (Hermitage of San Nicolás de Tolentino, erected in 1515), for the evangelization and acculturation of the indigenous population. The hermitage of Chipude is erected in a parish separate from the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Vallehermoso and Alajeró on November 25, 1655, with the limits of the Lomo de Teguerguenche and the Barranco de Erque.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the important agricultural wealth of Chipude was in the hands of wealthy owners of Vallehermoso. This led to the fact that after the decree of the Cortes of Cádiz of May 26, 1812, by which the modern municipalities were created, Arure and Chipude became a new municipal jurisdiction, the pressures of the rich absentee owners of Vallehermoso made incorporating the payment of Chipude to this municipality, while Arure continues as an independent municipality until, in 1935, the municipal capital moves to La Calera, renamed the municipality as Valle Gran Rey.From those moments, Chipude began to suffer a continuous depopulation, as shown by the large number of houses of traditional Canarian architecture abandoned and demolished.
In 1834, Chipude had 2,055 inhabitants. In the year 2000, Chipude encompassing the neighborhoods of El Cercado, Temocodá, La Dama, La Dehesa, Erque, Erquito, Igualero, Pavón and La Rajita (that is, the entire southern area of the municipality), had 652 inhabitants.