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In
the western coast of Cantabria, you can find two of the
biggest cultural treasures in the region: Santillana del
Mar and Altamira Caves.
Santillana
del Mar is 30 km far from Santander and it is an “alive
museum” of a medieval village developed around the
“Santa Juliana” collegiate church, although most of
the houses were built between the XIV century and the
XVIII one. The whole Santillana can only be visited on
foot.
You
can walk north through
the village by Santo Domingo Street, that becomes soon two
streets in a “Y” bifurcation: Juan Infante St., that
leads to the Ramon Pelayo´s Square, and the other one
called Carrera St. (also known as Cantón St. or Del Río
St.). In the triangular square there are some of the most
representative buildings: Barreda-Bracho´s Casona (XVIII;
with a splendid shield) which is nowadays the “Parador
Gil Blas” (a high-quality tourist hotel), Del Aguila y
La Parra´s houses, the Town Hall, the Don Borja´s Tower
(XIV; one of the noblest edifications in Santillana, owned
by the Barreda family, where it is the “Fundacion
Santillana”) and Merino´s
Tower (XIV; fortified residence of the “merinos”, the
old administrators of the sovereign properties). Cantón
St. presents and excellent collection of “casonas”
(the old typical houses owned by the rural nobility), from
the XV to the XVII; it is necessary to mention among them
the “Leonor de la Vega” gothic house (XV century), who
was the mother of the first Santillana´s marquis, and the
Villa´s house too (also known as “casa de los
hombrones”, with a big coat of arms with two knights
with moustache. At the end of the street you can find the
“Colegiata” (Saint Juliana´s collegiate church), the
most important religious monument of the Romanesque in
Cantabria.
Built
over an old hermitage in the XII century, it has got a
three apse ground plan, transept and three naves. In the
main façade there is a triangular pediment with the
martyr’s image, and above it, a gallery with fifteen
arcs framed by three towers, of them cylindrical. The
cloister is leaned against the north nave, and it is
considered as the master piece of the whole, because of
the excellent engraving of its capitals. But the genuine
flavour of this stony and millennial museum, which is the
village, is its own move of people, its always flowered
balconies, the charm of its nooks and traditional shops,
where you can have a glass of milk with “bizcocho”
(the typical product of the local confectionery).
Near
Santillana, just two kilometres far, it is one of the
biggest treasures of Cantabria: Altamira Caves,
universally appraised. They were discovered in 1879 by
Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola and his daughter Maria, and
they were declared by the UNESCO cultural heritage site.
The cave, about 300 meters long, has 150 engraved figures
made by the Palaeolithic man and great polychromatic
paintings (based on natural pigments), especially the ones
with bisons and wild boars. |
