Cantabria is a small autonomous community in northern Spain, facing the Cantabrian Sea between Asturias and the Basque Country, backed by the Cantabrian Mountains. Its Atlantic climate makes it lush green, with meadows, woods, rivers and stone villages, and its coast alternates wide beaches and cliffs. It is one of the regions of so-called España verde, Green Spain.
Altamira and prehistory
Cantabria is one of the cradles of European prehistoric art. In the Altamira cave, near Santillana del Mar, discovered in 1868 and studied from 1879, are cave paintings of bison, horses and deer painted in polychrome some 15,000 to 36,000 years ago: they have been called "the Sistine Chapel of Palaeolithic art". To protect them, the original cave is closed to the public, except for very rare visits, but the Altamira Museum houses the Neocave, a highly faithful replica. Other caves in the region, such as El Castillo and Covalanas, can be visited and belong to the same UNESCO site (see prehistoric art in Spain).
Towns and villages
The capital, Santander, is an elegant seaside city, a royal summer resort in the early twentieth century, with the Magdalena palace, the Sardinero beaches, the Centro Botín designed by Renzo Piano and the historic headquarters of Banco Santander. Santillana del Mar is one of Spain's loveliest medieval villages, with a Romanesque collegiate church and stone mansions: it is said to be neither holy (santa), nor flat (llana), nor on the sea. Comillas has the Capricho, an early villa by Antoni Gaudí decorated with sunflower tiles (see Gaudí), and a large pontifical university. On the eastern coast, Castro Urdiales is a fine port with a Gothic church by the sea, and Laredo has one of the longest beaches on the Cantabrian coast.
The mountains
Inland Cantabria has spectacular valleys and mountains: the Liébana valley, with the monastery of Santo Toribio, which keeps the largest known fragment of the cross of Christ, and part of the Picos de Europa, with the Fuente Dé cable car rising to over 1,800 metres. Cabárceno Park, in an old open-cast mine, keeps animals from every continent in semi-freedom. In the Pas valleys cows are raised and the region's most famous sweets are made, sobaos and quesada.
Flavours
Cantabrian cooking combines sea and mountains: Santoña anchovies, among the best in the world, fish and seafood, cocido montañés with beans and cabbage, cheeses and milk-based sweets such as sobao pasiego and quesada.
Getting there
Santander has an airport with international flights and a ferry port with sailings to the UK; it is about an hour from Bilbao. Below you will find a map of our guides and the municipalities.
Destinations on the map
Guides to the community
Castro Urdiales
A Gothic church and a castle-lighthouse by the sea, a harbour full of boats and Cantabrian anchovies: Castro Urdiales is one of the finest…
Santander
An elegant seaside city on a luminous bay, with golden beaches, a royal palace by the sea and the Altamira caves half an hour away.