Attractions
Royal Palace of La Magdalena
Address: Av de la Reina Victoria, s/n, 39005 Santander, Cantabria, España .The Royal Palace of La Magdalena is a building located on the peninsula of La Magdalena, opposite the island of Mouro, in the city of Santander, and was built between 1909 and 1911, by popular subscription, to house the Spanish royal family.
Botin Art Centre
Address: Jardines de Pereda, Paseo de Pereda, Santander, Spain .The Botín Center is an art center designed by the architect Renzo Piano (Pritzker architecture prize) It is located in a privileged place in Santander, and through a broader urban intervention, Renzo Piano manages to integrate the city center and the historic Gardens Pereda with its bay.
Open
Winter time (October to May):
from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Summer time (June to September):
from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
December 24 and 31: open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
April 30: open from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Every Monday from July 15 to August 26, from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.Closed
January 1 and December 25. Every MondaySantander Bay
Address: Bahía de Santander, Spain .One of the most beautiful bays in the world.
Santander Bay is considered by Unesco as one of the most beautiful in the world. It is the largest estuary on the north coast of Spain. Undoubtedly, one of the great symbols of identity of the city, where you can walk along its long promenade, from the Maritime Station to the Magdalena beaches, enjoying its beautiful views. Or taking one of the small ferry that cross it, in the direction of the towns of Somo and Pedreña, and its beaches on the other side of the bay.
Sardinero Beaches
Address: Playa del Sardinero, Avenida Manuel García Lago, Santander, Spain .El Sardinero has two beaches with the same name. One is the First Sardinero Beach and the other is the Second Sardinero Beach. They are two different beaches although they are followed on the coast line and when the tide goes down they join with almost 2 kilometers of fine sand. For a long time, sardine fishing ground, hence the name of El Sardinero.
History tells us that in the past, the second of the beaches was used by the middle and lower classes, while the other was used by the Santander high classes, so there was a social differentiation between the two. Nowadays both beaches are very familiar and very crowded during the summer, since they are the most extensive with which the city has.
Cabo Mayor Lighthouse Art Center
Address: Faro de Cabo Mayor, Faro Cabo Mayor, Santander, Spain .The Cabo Mayor Room is the heart of the Art Center and occupies the space of the former house of the lighthouse keepers of the Cabo Mayor Lighthouse, located in an enclave of extraordinary beauty from which to enjoy the Cantabrian coast. There the central core of the Sanz-Villar collection is exposed, which is made up of more than two hundred pieces of large and medium format and an overwhelming set of almost a thousand drawings, watercolors, graphites ... dedicated to the main lighthouses of the Spanish coast . The coherent and significant selection of works integrated in the permanent exhibition of the Center forms one of its main hallmarks, as the lighthouses have represented a constant reference, in the painter's extensive artistic career.
Winter time:
From Tuesday to Sunday:
- Morning: 11:00 -13: 30 hours.
- Afternoons: 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Closed MondaySummer Time (July - August):
From Tuesday to Sunday:
- Morning: 11:00 -13: 30 hours.
- Afternoons: 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Closed Monday
The Cultural Ring of Santander
Address: Plaza Velarde, Santander, Spain .The Cultural Ring of Santander encompasses several unique exhibition centers, whereby the city of Santander values the richness of its history in a cultural proposal conceived as a walk between these spaces. It is presented in this way, as an essential itinerary in Santander, which is possible thanks to the creation and reinforcement of several cultural spaces configured as interpretation centers, museums, exhibition halls and art centers.
Specifically, the route of the Ring proposes the visit to six exhibition spaces, arising from the commitment to culture as an asset for the intellectual development of citizens, as a tourist attraction.The Interpretation Centers of the History of the city, in the Tower of the Cathedral and the Medieval Wall, in the Porticada square, make known the history of the city from ancient times to the twentieth century. Two new spaces that add to the offer of the Interpretation Center of the Docks, located under the Plaza de Alfonso XIII. A particular trilogy about the origin of Santander separated only by a few meters from the space that helps to understand the origin of man: the Museum of Prehistory and Archeology of Cantabria.
This itinerary is completed with a visit to the Antiaircraft Refuge, in the current Prince's Square, built in the spring of 1937 to protect against aviation bombing during the Civil War.
Just by crossing the street, the visitor begins the final journey until completing the circumference that sustains this alliance between Santander and culture. We will have to go through some renovated and expanded Pereda Gardens, until we find, near the bay, the Bank of Spain building, whose future goes through its conversion into a new Reina Sofia Associate Museum of modern art. Turning the view to the south, the landscape completes a beautiful view with the spectacular Botín Center building.
Visits are made by appointment, by calling: +34 942 203 099
Barcena Mayor
Address: Bárcena Mayor, Spain .Rustic town in the heart of the national reserve of hunting of the Saja, of great picturesqueness. It is situated in a deep valley, flanked by small hills, with concentrated hamlet, in rectangular form, with two main streets and squares where time seems stopped. All the houses are typical of Cantabria, it is declared a historical-artistic complex, most of them built in the Fernandina era, with facades facing midday or the East, flanked by windbreaks and two floors, the lower one with a portal and the upper one with The typical balconies. They are of masonry, although the corners and openings are of masonry and the interior of wood. The church, with the dedication to Santa Maria, is from the 17th century and has an interesting baroque altarpiece from the 18th century.
To visit the town it is necessary to park the vehicle in the parking lot built at the entrance, since only residents are allowed to pass through, which allows you to fully enjoy the beauty of this rural architectural complex.
Comillas
Address: Comillas, Spain .This beautiful seaside town stands out for its medieval and baroque buildings and for being one of the few places outside Catalonia where modernist artists such as Antoni Gaudí or Domènech i Montaner intervened, their works being abundant and visible throughout the town.
The town gives its name to the Comillas Pontifical University originally located in this Cantabrian town until its transfer to Madrid. The old university buildings are one of the best examples of local modernism.
Because the University from which important ecclesiastical figures came out is popularly known as the "village of the archbishops"
For much of the nineteenth and twentieth century, its traditional marine character was joined by being the summer resort of the Spanish royal family and as a consequence of the Spanish nobility and aristocracy, especially Madrid, Catalan and Basque
At present, although it maintains that stately character in many of its social fields and in its constructions, it is a popular summer resort
Comillas became the capital of Spain for one day, on August 6, 1881, following the decision of King Alfonso XII to gather his council of ministers in the town.Santillana del Mar Altamira Cave
Address: Santillana del Mar, Spain .Essential appointment for the tourist who visits Cantabria. Santillana del Mar is undoubtedly one of the towns with the greatest historical and artistic value in Spain, to the point that everything in it is a monument.
To speak of Santillana del Mar is also to speak of the Cave of Altamira. Qualified as the "Sistine chapel" of rock art, this cave probably contains the most famous prehistoric paintings in the world.
But although a fundamental part, Santillana del Mar is much more than the Cave of Altamira. Already in the ninth century there was in the town the Monastery of Santa Juliana, which would give way to the prestigious collegiate church of Santa Juliana in the twelfth century, the first and most important of the exponents of Romanesque art in Cantabria. Around the collegiate church and its beautiful cloister, from the end of the XII-beginning of the XIII, a population center was developed that experienced times of great economic splendor, as evidenced by the richness of the numerous mansions and palaces that make up this town.The towers of Merino and Don Borja (now the headquarters of the Santillana Foundation) are among the oldest civil constructions in a cobbled town, which is essential to walk on foot to fully admire the beauty of its medieval streets and buildings. We will find ourselves in front of splendid buildings such as the houses of the Eagle and the Parra (where the Regional Government has installed an exhibition hall), the palace and the tower of Velarde, the house of Leonor de la Vega, the palaces of Barreda, Tagle and Villa and a very long etcetera that would be too extensive to list.
Santillana del Mar hosts an intense cultural activity, which takes place throughout the year in its different exhibition halls and museums.
In its cobbled medieval streets we can also find multiple artisan workshops and taste tasty milk with biscuits, the most popular snack in the town.
