Santander

The port city of Santander (English /sɑːntɑːnˈdɛər/; Spanish: [santanˈder]) is the capital of the autonomous community and historical region of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain. Located east of Gijón and west of Bilbao , the city has a population of 178,465 (2013).

In the early 20th century Santander became the favoured summer residence of King Alfonso XIII, who built the Palacio de la Magdalena as the residence of the royal family during the holidays. The city gained great popularity from this and from the 19th century enthusiasm for sea bathing, and it remains popular with the Spanish for beach holidays today.

Santander fell victim to agreat firein 1941. Fanned by a strong south wind, the fire burned for two days. The fire destroyed the greater part of the medieval town centre and gutted the city’s Romanesque cathedral.

Main sights

• The ⊙Cathedral of Santander :
  • The lower temple, called "cripta del Cristo" was built around 1200 on other earlier roman buildings. It is 31 metres long and 18 wide, organised into three naves. Its style is a transition from romanesque to gothic and is accessed by two doors of late romanesque. Here the remains of the Holy Martyrs (Emeterius and Celedonius) are kept, which reached Portus Victoriae (the ancient Roman Santander) by boat.
  • The upper church was built between the late 13th and 14th century. After it was completed the gothic cloister was built.
• El Sardinero was in 1840 a rugged area of Santander environment. Since 1850, the first tourists started arriving and created some facilities (bath houses, eateries.). Following the summer of Queen Isabella II in El Sardinero in 1861 and Amedeo of Savoy in 1872, the area acquired great fame and began to attract many tourists. There was a spectacular urban and cultural development with the construction of several hotels, inns, cafes, trains and trams arriving at El Sardinero.
• The ⊙Palacio de la Magdalena , eclectic style, English influenced, built in 1909 by public subscription as a gift for the Spanish Royal Family.
• El Hotel Real was opened in the summer of 1917, in a privileged location overlooking the bay and the open sea. It is a five-storey building, with south porch on a high terrace. The style is modern with an air of eclecticism, by the architect González Riancho.
• Next to El Hotel Real stands the old house built for Don Adolfo Pardo from 1915–1918. Of mountain style with well marked tower, it was designed by the architect Gonzalez Riano and today is the palace of Emilio Botín García de los Ríos.
• The ⊙Gran Casino del Sardinero completed in 1916, has some relationship to El Hotel Real and is one of the symbols of the city. It has a terrace balcony which is accessed by a monumental staircase. The two-storey central body is framed at the sides with two octagonal towers, covered by domes, whose edges involved, from top to bottom, shafts with capitals for each floor.
• The ⊙ Lighthouse of Cabo Mayor presides over the entrance to the Bay of Santander. This privileged balcony overlooks the Cantabrian sea and in the city is now one of the most emblematic and evocative for citizens and visitors of Santander. Located in the extreme northeast of the city, the area where the Lighthouse of Cabo Mayor is located is part of a larger area consisting of the headlands of Cabo Mayor and Cabo Menor. The physical configuration of this space is defined by its particular geomorphology, marked by its beaches and cliffs of coastline and a rugged terrain with maximum dimensions of 50 m above sea level. Historically located on the outskirts of the city, the area of Cabo Mayor and Cabo Menor has applications and relevant functions: signal maritime defensive position, horse racing, camping, public park, golf course, etc. Thus it became a tourist landmark and one of the areas of greatest landscape and environmental variety.