Spain online COM · Cantabria

Cantabria en Español >>>

The region of Cantabria, Spain

The region (autonomia in Spanish) of Cantabria has a population of half a million in the third smallest regional area of Spain. This is a density of about 30% greater than the national average.

The capital is Santander. Other main cities are: Santillana del Mar, Comillas and Laredo.

Although one of the smallest regions Cantabria lacks nothing in the diversity of what it has to offer the visitor: mountains, beaches, forests, pastures and a history and heritage that stretches from the earliest times.

Heritage

Rather than consider an exhaustive inventory of the locations and monuments of Cantabria’s inheritance it is preferable to pick a few indicative items to show what, from the past, makes these people what they are today. The best place to start is at the beginning – with the cave paintings, and museum, of Altamira, declared a world heritage site in 1985.
Mention must also be made of: Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liebana (Potes), first built in the fifth/sixth centuries then rebuilt in 1255. The monastery has, reputedly, a relic of the cross of Christ. Also popular locally is the Santuario de la Bien Aparecida (Ampuero) and the cathedral de la Virgen Bien Aparacida, patron of the mountains and of Cantabria. From the roman period it is worth seeing the Restos del Castro –a fortified city, Juliobriga (Reinosa), as well as their coastal settlements, such as Portus Victoria (Santander) and Flaviobriga.

One must also include the international university of Mendez Pelayo and the international university of Santandar, currently at the Palacio de la Magdalena.

Festivities traditions cooking

Throughout the year there are three types of festival – religious, pre-christian and commercial fairs.
The folksongs,dances and traditional dress are all characteristic of the mountains. The songs, such as the Marzas, Mayas and Picayos have a simple elegance in delivery – almost a recitation.
Some dances, such as the danza de Ibio, el baile de las Lanzas(Ruiloba) and th Pericote and le Trepeltre (Liebana) are more complex. The vocal melodies are accompanied by tambourines, whistles, drums,castanets and a rebec(medieval string instrument).
Festivals are also an excuse for sporting competitions such as regattas for sardine fishing boats, skittles, and more recently, a variation of tug-of-war, pulling the ox and cow ! ( Well! strong men on British TV pull ten ton trucks. Why?).

Cantabrian cooking is based on three main dishes. Stews of beans and chick peas, especially the Stew of the Mountains, the touchstone of Cantabrian cooking. Fish dishes use,mainly salmon, trout, tuna and lobster. A typical sea food dish is Marmita.
There are many delicious local cheeses, such as – Picon de Treviso, Ahumado de Aliva and the cheeses of Lebaniegos.
Sweet dishes include: Quesada(type of cheesecake),rice pudding and Soboas(spongy dough with sweet lemon flavour).

History

The cave paintings of Altamira, Puente Viesgo and El Pendo are ample evidence of the skills of these prehistory settlers who were in Cantabria more than 100,000 years ago.
The Romans finally conquered in 19BC after ten years of siege, which indicates that their occupation was never wholly secure.
In 411 the Vandals arrived at the Cantabrian coast and after them the Visigoth king Leovigildo took over the region.
The Moors, unlike in the rest of Spain, never properly took control in, probably the mountains and the winters were not to their liking. However, this provided a springboard for the kings of Castile to start the Reconquista in these parts.
The port of Santander was important, from the eleventh century for the export of wool and whale fishing. The prosperity generated by these trades helped to expand other ports like Castro-Urdiales, Laredo and Colindres.

Countryside and wildlife

Countryside and nature lovers adore Cantabria, which has the largest national park in Spain, Picos de Europa and five country parks as well as many other protected areas.
Mention must be made of the Parque de la Naturaleza de Cararceno in whose seven hundred and fifty hectares are programmes to preserve endangered species.

On that others can appreciate and enjoy all these natural riches Cantabria has provided more camping sites than any other region in Spain.
Other important locations are: Natural Reserve of Marismas de Santona, Tictoria and Joyel, the park of Macizo de Pena Cabarga, and the country parks of Dunas de Liencres, Saja, Collados de Ason y Oyambre.

Coast and beaches

Cantabria has more than seventy beaches of all types in a relatively small area. They all enjoy fine white sand and clear waters.

The coastline varies from high rugged cliffs, through foothills to flat pastures. This has resulted in many different rock formations from the smooth to rugged crags, which in turn have created promontories and small offshore islands. The combination of tectonic changes and wave movements has produced many types of estuary from deep ravines to wide flat salt marshes.

Given such an emphatic and forceful show of nature even man, with all his excesses and ignorance, has not been able to dispel the sense of place that one finds in places like: Castro Urdiales, Laredo, Santona, Noja, the bay of Santander,Suances, Comillas and San Vicente de la Barquera.
Outstanding beaches are: Los Locos in Suances, El Sardinero in Santander, La Salve in Laredo, Tregandin y Ris in Noya, Oyambre in Comillas and Mogro in Miengo.

Activities and sports

In short, all almost water sports are available. Santandar, Laredo and Castro-Urdiales have water sports clubs with all kinds of services from rowing, surfing, sailing and wind-surfing - as the waters of the bays, estuaries and open sea offer every type of condition. For underwater sports there are attractive and interesting locations around – St Vicente, Santander, Capo de Ajo and Laredo.

The Picos de Europa is the king of the mountains. Here rock climbing, alpinism, hang-gliding as well as trekking, horse-riding and mountain- biking are popular. Saja is the place for hunting. The best choice for golf is the Royal Golf Club of Pedrena which overlooks the bay of Santander with one of the best views in Spain.

Winter sports can be enjoyed at the station of Alto Campo, near Reinosa.

Getting there and about

The airport, Parayas, is ten minutes from the centre of Santander and has connections to all Spanish airports and some international flights.
There are four main roads – N634 east-west coastal road; N611 – to Palencia: N623 to Burgos, Madrid and N634/A8 to Bilbao. There is also a good network of regional roads.
The port of Santander has good passenger and car-ferry services, especially to England.
There are good local bus, rail and car hire services.