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.
Cantabria guide