Cantabria information
Santillana del Mar information
Situated on the St James pilgrimage route , Santillana is a beautiful
city that developed around the Collegiata church of Santa María.
We cannot talk about Santillana without mention “Las Cuevas
de Altamira” (Altamira’s caves), which contains probably
the most famous prehistoric paintings of the world.
The discovery of these caves, at the end of last century, caused
a great commotion in the scientific community of that time, unwilling
to believe or admit the real antiquity of its paintings of 14
000 years old.
During the following century after it discovery, the large amount
of visitors to the cave began to worry the scientists of a possible
deterioration of the paintings.Because of that the access to the
caves were closed to the public in 1979 ,later on the access was
reopened but controlled to preserve the valuable content.
At present, the access to the cave is very restricted, for what
the Government of Cantabria has decided to construct a reply and
a museum for the public.
Santillana also enjoys of a magnificient coast that invites to
the fishing and to the calm of its beaches , Santa Juliana y Ubiarco.