Santillana del Mar, the town of three lies: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
The stone village and the Colegiata
Santillana is called the town of three lies, since it is not holy, not flat and, tucked in a hollow that hides it from the sea, not by the sea. Along the way you meet the saint's church, the noble houses and their coats of arms, the market square with the merino's tower, and the Dominicans who settled outside the centre.
The stops
An old saying calls Santillana del Mar the town of three lies, since it is neither a saint (santa), nor flat (llana), nor by the sea (mar). The name in fact comes from Santa Juliana, whose remains are kept in this Romanesque collegiate church, a former Benedictine monastery. The church is mostly 12th century, in 1889 it became the first monument in Cantabria to be given national protection, and its cloister, added from the late 12th century, is the most outstanding part, with more than forty Romanesque capitals.
Photo: JnCrlsMG — CC BY-SA 4.0 This palace on the Plaza de las Arenas, also called the Palacio de las Arenas, was finished in the middle of the 16th century for Alonso de Velarde, a member of a powerful local family. Its architecture is early Renaissance, with rhythmic windows and a crown of pinnacles. It stayed with the Velarde line into the early 20th century, until in 1915 the last heir sold it to the writer Ricardo León.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 These two houses from the 17th and 18th centuries stand at right angles beside the old watering trough and make a single mansion: the Casa de Cossío to the north and the Casa de los Quevedo to the south. The Quevedo house belonged to a relative of the writer Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas, and each house carries its family's coat of arms. A vaulted tunnel runs through the Quevedo house and serves as a drain for the trough and the stream.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 This house, also called the Casa de los Villa, is known as the Casa de los Hombrones after the two moustached knights who hold up the huge Baroque coat of arms of the Villa family on its front. One guide calls it the most monumental Baroque coat of arms in the village. The house stands on Calle del Cantón, beside the house of Leonor de la Vega.
Photo: José Luis Filpo Cabana — CC BY 3.0 This house on Calle del Cantón carries the name of Leonor de la Vega, mother of the first Marquis of Santillana, and tradition says she lived here, although she died in 1432, before the house was built. It dates from the late 15th or early 16th century, Juan de Polanco is named as its builder, and three Gothic coats of arms on the front join the Polanco and Lasso de la Vega families. In 1445 King Juan II gave the lordship of the town to that first marquis and his successors, the dukes of the Infantado, and the town lost its royal status and began to decline.
Photo: charles lecompte — CC BY-SA 3.0 The market held on this square was allowed by a charter of 1209, and the town's civil centre grew up around it and this medieval tower, in contrast to the church square. The tower, nicknamed La Torrona, is believed to have been built for the merino, the king's representative for the Asturias de Santillana, and it also had a military role. It is dated to the late 13th or the 14th century, and its walls are rubble masonry with dressed stone corners.
Photo: Vicenç Salvador Torres Guerola — CC BY-SA 3.0 This tower house is probably medieval in origin, and the present building dates from the 15th century, with two Gothic coats of arms of the Barreda family and a pointed arch at the entrance. It is named for Borja Barreda, who held the family estate in 1844, and a 16th-century courtyard joins its two parts. Later it passed to the Infanta María de la Paz de Borbón, to whom Juan Antonio Güell, Marquis of Comillas, gave it, and it was restored in 1981 as the home of the Fundación Santillana.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 Two houses stand side by side here: the Casa de la Parra, a Gothic building from the early 16th century named for a large vine that once grew on its front, and the Casa del Águila, from the 17th century, which carries the arms of Estrada and Tagle. Both are used for exhibitions. In front of them stands a bison, a sculpture by Jesús Otero.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 Francisco Miguel de Peredo, a Knight of Calatrava from 1694, ordered this square, two-storey palace, and one visitor guide says it was built in the early 18th century beside the family's Gothic house, with money from Mexico. Its several names, Palacio de Peredo-Barreda, Palacio de Peredo and Palacio de Benemejís, reflect the property's history, including the 19th-century owner Blas María de Barreda and the Marquesa de Benamejí. The Peredo and Barreda families often held the post of merino, and guides describe a library with incunabula and manuscripts inside.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0 In 1592 the Dominicans tried to settle in the Las Arenas palace, but the canons of the collegiate church opposed them, so they settled outside the town centre under the protection of the Duke of the Infantado. The convent was affected by the disentailment of 1835, which suppressed convents and monasteries, and in the 1960s it became the diocesan museum of sacred art. Clarist nuns have occupied the convent since the 19th century. The cloister is the most notable part of the building, and the museum also keeps the diocesan archive.
Photo: charles lecompte — CC BY-SA 3.0 The sculptor Jesús Otero was born in Santillana in 1908 and died here in 1994. His main subjects were nature and animals, and in December 1993 he gave the town the work he still held, including drawings and sketches. This collection became the museum, which opened on 19 March 1994, a few months before his death.
Photo: Zarateman — CC0
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