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Top Attractions in Cantabria

Cave of Altamira

The Cave of Altamira is a cave in Spain famous for its Upper Paleolithic cave paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human hands. It was the first cave, in which prehistoric cave paintings were discovered. When the discovery was first made public in 1880, it led to a bitter public controversy between experts which continued into the early 20th century, since many did not believe prehistoric man had the intellectual capacity to produce any kind of artistic expression. The acknowledgment of the authenticity of the paintings, which finally came in 1902, changed the perception of prehistoric human beings. It is located near the town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain, 30 km west of the city of Santander. The cave with its paintings has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Caves of Monte Castillo

The Caves of Monte Castillo, located in the Cantabrian town of Puente Viesgo, contain one of the most important Paleolithic sites in the region. The complex of caves of Monte Castillo is included in the list of World Heritage of UNESCO since July 2008, within the site «Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain». These include the caves Las Monedas, El Castillo, Las Chimeneas, and La Pasiega. The caves contain decorations in red ochre in the forms of hand stencils and dots. One red disk or dot has been dated to 40,800 years ago, making it the oldest dated cave decoration in the world as of 2014. This set of caves is located along the Pas river in the Castillo mountain, squarely at the intersection of three valleys and near the coast. This is a fertile ground for agriculture, hunting and fishing, which explains the emergence of several prehistoric settlements there.

Cave of El Castillo

The Cueva de El Castillo, or the Cave of the Castle, is an archaeological site within the complex of the Caves of Monte Castillo, and is located in Puente Viesgo, in the province of Cantabria, Spain. It contains the oldest known cave art in the world. Hand stencils and disks made by blowing paint onto the wall in El Castillo cave were found to date back to at least 40,800 years, making them the oldest known cave art in Europe, 5-10,000 years older than previous examples from France. As traditional methods such as radiocarbon dating do not work where there is no organic pigment, a team of UK, Spanish and Portuguese researchers led by Dr. Alistair Pike of the University of Bristol, UK dated the formation of tiny stalactites on top of the paintings using the radioactive decay of uranium. This gave a minimum age for the art. Where larger stalagmites had been painted, maximum ages were also obtained. This cave was discovered in 1903 by Hermilio Alcalde del Río, the Spanish archaeologist, who was one of the pioneers in the study of the earliest cave paintings of Cantabria. The entrance to the cave was smaller in the past, but it has been enlarged as a result of archeological excavations. By way of this entrance one can access the different rooms in which Alcalde del Río found an extensive sequence of images. The paintings and other markings span from the Lower Paleolithic to the Bronze Age, and even into the Middle Ages. There are over 150 figures already catalogued, including those that emphasize the engravings of a few deer, complete with shadowing.

Cave of Chufín

The cave of Chufín located in the town of Riclones in Cantabria . It is located in the place of confluence of the Lamasón and Nansa rivers in an environment with steep slopes where there are several caves with rock art. It is one of the caves included in the list of World Heritage of UNESCO since July 2008, within the site «Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain». It were discovered by the photographer Manuel de Cos Borbolla, natural of Rabago In Chufín found different levels of occupation, the oldest being around 20000 years old. The cave, small size, has some deep sentillez subtle engravings and paintings from red deer, goats and cattle that are represented very schematically. It also found a large number of symbols. One group, called type "sticks", accompanies the paintings inside animals. There is also a large number of drawings using points, including one which has been interpreted as a representation of a vulva.

Juliobriga

Juliobriga was the most important urban centre in Roman Cantabria, as stated by numerous Latin authors including Pliny the Elder. The site has traditionally been identified with ruins in the village of Retortillo and its Villafría district, in the municipality of Campoo de Enmedio. Its founding, during the Cantabrian Wars, made it a powerful symbol of Roman domination of the tribes of the Cantabri. The city was named after the reigning emperor Augustus and his adopted family name, the gens Julia, with the Celtic toponym element briga, common in Iberia. Due to its strategic location in the Besaya valley, it was able to control trade between the Douro river and the Bay of Biscay. Juliobriga grew slowly, reaching its peak between the end of the 1st century and the early 2nd century AD. Following that, its population began to decline, until the city was completely abandoned in the 3rd century. The ruins of Retortillo were first identified with Julióbriga in the second half of the 18th century by Enrique Florez. Numerous historians and archaeologists have worked on the site since, including some of Spains foremost. The ruins of Juliobriga were declared a Heritage Site by the Spanish Government on March 29, 1985.

Cueva de La Pasiega

Cueva de La Pasiega, or Cave of La Pasiega, situated in the Spanish municipality of Puente Viesgo, is one of the most important monuments of Paleolithic art in Cantabria. It is included in the UNESCO schedule of Human Heritage since July 2008, under the citation "Cave of Altamira and palaeolithic cave art of Northern Spain." It is located in the heart of the uniprovincial community, in the middle of the valley of the river Pas, around the cave of Hornos de la Pena and Monte Castillo, in the same group of caves as Las Monedas, Las Chimeneas, and the cave of El Castillo. The caves of Monte Castillo form an amazingly complete series, both as regards the material culture of the Old Stone Age and from an artistic point of view. La Pasiega is basically an enormous gallery, its known extent more than 120 meters, that runs more or less parallel to the slope of the mount, opening to the surface at six different places: six small mouths, the majority obstructed, of which two can be accessed for inspection. The principal gallery is approximately 70 meters and opens to deeper secondary galleries, winding and labyrinthine, which in places broaden out to form large chambers. Thus one refers to "room II-VIII", the room called "Gallery B", or "room 11" of "Gallery C", all with paleolithic decorations. The two last mentioned rooms contain some of the rock sanctuaries that will be mentioned below. The recorded remains belong mainly to the Upper Solutrean and the Lower Magdalenian ages, although older objects are also found. Throughout the cave are many 'walls' with paintings and with engraved or incised images. There are representations of equines , cervids and bovines . There are also many abstract symbols .

Cave of El Soplao

El Soplao is a cave located in the municipalities of Rionansa, Valdáliga and Herrerías in Cantabria, Spain. It is considered unique for the quality and quantity of geological formations in its 17 miles length, 6 of which are open to the public. In it are formations such as helíctites and curtains . Its formation dates back to the Mesozoic, in particular the Cretaceous period 240 million years ago. The entrance is at 540 metres in the Sierra Soplao Arnero. The cave was accidentally discovered during drilling for mining, subsequently being exploited for the extraction of minerals. During its operation, many local families were supported by the income they got from the mining, combined with farming livestock. After decades of neglect, speleology, and in particular the Cantabria University Speleology Club since 1975, have discovered its true geological value. On July 1, 2005 the Government of Cantabria opened it to the public and publicised it internationally, after development for tourism and protection rules prohibiting any further activity by the discoverering club. Research goes on, resulting in the study of amber deposits, the recognition of underground stromatolites formed by manganese-oxidising bacteria, and a new mineral form, zaccagnaite-3R. El Soplao is just one of at least 6,500 underground caves in Cantabria.

Santo Toribio de Liébana

The Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana is a Roman Catholic monastery located in the district of Liébana, near Potes in Cantabria, Spain. Located in the Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain, the monastery is one of the five places of Christianity that, together with Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Caravaca de la Cruz, has the privilege of perpetual indulgences. The monastery was founded prior to the 6th century. According to tradition, the monastery venerates that largest piece of the Lignum Crucis discovered in Jerusalem by Saint Helena of Constantinople. Brought from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher by Saint Turibius of Astorga, the left arm of the True Cross is kept on a gilded silver reliquary. The monastery was initially dedicated to St. Martin of Tours but its name was changed in the 12th century. On April 16, 1961, the Franciscan friars, Custodians of the Holy Places, were entrusted with the relic's safekeeping and with the promotion of the devotion to the Holy Cross.
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