Santillana del Mar is an ancient town situated in the Spanish town communities of the Cantabria. It was named after the ninth century monastery that housed the remains of the martyr St. Iuliana. Santillana del Mar retains the intense fascination of an ancient town and certainly is at the heart of tourism. It is represented by the caves of Altamira (Cuevas de Altamira), one of the more than significant artistic heritages of Europe.
Santillana del Mar is surely the center of entertainment with numerous cultural performances, which are presented annually. In Lungo, throughout the ancient medieval streets, you can find shops of artisans and enjoy the famous traditional tea with milk, and small picturesque wooden houses with iron balconies.
The Altamira Caves
Not far you can admire the beautiful coastline and tranquil beaches of Santa Juliana and Ubiarco.
Santillana del Mar is also one of the major steps in the journey to Santiago de Compostela. It is included in the passage northward along the estuaries of El Pas de la Arena and St. Marten.
The Caves of Altamira (UNESCO-World Heritage of Humanity) are also called the "Sistine Chapel of prehistory" because they are completely covered with reproductions of scenes from the prehistoric drawings dating to more than 14,000 years ago. It has extraordinary decorations made ??in the Paleolithic period, with pictures of prehistoric bison, which are reddish in color, on the walls and ceilings of the caves. They are from some of the ancient cave paintings of the prehistoric people.
They were discovered in 1879 by Marcelino Sanz de Sautola and his daughter Maria, in Santillana del Mar. The caves are currently under tight security because of the numerous visits in the last decades, high rates of condensation and temperature variations have considerably enhanced the effects of deterioration. Currently, they have established a ceiling of 8,500 visitors a year, in order to strike a balance between conservation and tourism.
Some of the lucky tourists will get to visit ??virtual caves (Neocueva) that allow the visitor to admire the prehistoric images without damaging the originals cave drawings of Altamira, made about 15,000 years ago. The virtual caves also offer a virtual tour of the Upper Paleolithic area, including a library, which is one of the most complete on the prehistory, and a museum with a modern research center for the study of the Paleolithic Era.
Thus it will be a visit rich with historic grandeur.