Visit Santillana del Mar and Comillas

Santillana del Mar and Comillas are two other must-visit towns when exploring Cantabria.

Santillana del Mar is a true monument-city, where all you have to do is open your eyes and feel the history, art, and culture reflected in its streets and monuments. Known as “the town of three lies” (because it is neither holy, nor flat, nor by the sea), it will surprise you with its Monastery of Santa Juliana, the towers of Merino and Don Borja, its cobbled streets, and, of course, the Altamira Cave.

Comillas combines, as is often the case in Cantabria, art, culture, and nature. All its expressions will leave you speechless. As you stroll through its streets and enjoy its buildings, you can discover how its history was changed by emigrants returning from America in the 19th century, and how Modernism transformed it into a true beauty.

Among its monuments, it treasures an emblematic place: El Capricho de Gaudí. Nestled among trees, this building with Hispano-Arabic elements was designed by Gaudí for Máximo de Quijano, brother-in-law of the first Marquis of Comillas, and it surprises you at every corner.