To Altamira and beyond. Pilgrimage to the caves of Cantabria. Part 2. Santillana del Mar
To Altamira and beyond. Pilgrimage to the caves of Cantabria. Part 2. Santillana del Mar. Altamira
Getting to Altamira Cave on your own is very easy: a bus leaves from Santander every hour before and after lunch, which stops in the village of Santillana del Mar. Bus timetables can be obtained from the information desk of the Santander bus station.
Santillana del Mar is a village 30 km from Santander. Medieval buildings have been preserved in Sanillana, which is why it has become popular among tourists and is marked for visiting in group tours of Cantabria. I'll just leave here a few photos with comments.
Santillana del Mar is the place to go to reach the cave of Altamira
A typical example of a medieval building - windows and doors have different sizes and are not symmetrical.
Area in Santillana del Mar
If you get tired, you can sit down on a comfortable stone bench - an echo of the Middle Ages. The emblem on the wall in the form of a shell means that the famous Pilgrim's Way in Europe, the Way of St. James, passes through the village of Santillana del Mar. Therefore, if you are a believer or just interested in history and want to walk along this famous pilgrimage road, do not forget to pay tribute to the theory of evolution and look into Altamira for an hour.
Stone bench in the historic part of the village of Santillana del Mar
Spain, like no other European country, still hovers the spirit of Christian fanaticism. Pictured is the Torture Museum in Santillana del Mar. To the right of the Inquisitor's statue, a skeleton in an iron cage hangs over the door. I hope you don't get too upset that I didn't take a picture of him? In general, this is a nice village in which the memory of the historical past is sacredly guarded.
And of course - Merry Christmas! Behind the glass showcases are figurines depicting scenes from the Gospel.
Scenes from the Gospel on display in the center of Santillana del Mar.
Here you need to pay attention to a tiny house sandwiched between two large houses. Such buildings are typical of European villages with a medieval heritage.
And again - a tiny house (second from the left). It would be interesting to see what's inside. First floor - closet, second floor - kitchen and third - bedroom?
Santillana del Mar is not the first village with medieval buildings that I have seen. And, like other similar settlements, it made a somewhat depressing impression on me. But on the other hand, in Santillana del Mar they bake very tasty and fatty cookies and the same delicious, fatty bagels sprinkled with sugar.
Buffaloes are the symbol and pride of Santillana. They are even drawn on paper, which is used to wrap pastries. And there are even several hotels with the name "Altamira" here!
The walking path from Santillana del Mar to Altamira is laid along the main road. The journey takes about 30 minutes. Altamira, like all other caves of Cantabria, is located in the mountains.
Lawns in Santillana del Mar on the way to Altamira
Altamira Museum. After 30 minutes of lung lifting before my eyes appeared the stone wall of the famous museum of Altamira. Entrance to the museum is only 3 euros. Such a modest price you will pay for the revolution that will take place in your mind after you leave the museum. Whatever you believe: that man has always been "reasonable", because he was created by God at once, or that ancient people lived a primitive cave life until the onset of Antiquity and the new era, you will have something to think about .
Altamira was discovered in the second half of the 19th century by amateur archaeologist Marcelio Sautuola. If you are interested in the history of this wonderful discovery, I advise you to watch the informative film "Altamira" released in 2016 based on real events.
Commemorative plaque in honor of Marcelino Sautuola
From the 70s of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st, Altamira was closed. They explained to me that this is due to the fact that when a large number of people are in the cave, the level of humidity in the air and, of course, its composition changes. This negatively affects the safety of the drawings. On Wikipedia, you can read that the cave was closed because mold appeared on the drawings. Perhaps it is.
Since 2011, in the immediate vicinity of the entrance to the real Altamira, its museum has been opened - the so-called "New Altamira", which contains exact copies of drawings, tools of the era Late (Upper) Paleolithic and educational materials about the life of an ancient person. Once a week - on Friday - visitors have a chance to see a real cave. Five lucky winners are selected by lottery. I did not know about this chance and arrived in Altamira on Thursday. So, there is a reason to return.
Entrance to the real cave of Altamira
The age of the drawings in Altamira is from 11.800 to 14.500 years. They differ from the drawings in other caves, first of all, in size - the images in Altamira are very large, the horse was drawn almost in full growth! The contours of the animals were first drawn in stone and then painted. And this is on the ceiling, that is, at a height of two meters, while respecting the proportions and using the structure of the stone to make the drawings more realistic. The lying bison is depicted on a stone ledge in such a way that the shape of the ledge coincides with the shape of its body. It is impossible to create a drawing at such a height without the use of stairs or other similar items. Since there are no traces of stone supports, it is assumed that wood was used to create them.
Bison and horses are painted in Altamira. The images were created by entire generations over a period lasting more than 2.000 years. The oldest drawings - about 14.500, the "youngest", as I already wrote - about 11.800. At the same time, the unity of the drawing technique is amazing. Isn't it amazing? It's scary to imagine how the history of mankind has changed over the past 2 thousand years and how it "before our era" has not changed for millennia and even tens of thousands of years! The creators of the drawings in Altamira lived in the same cave in which their great-grandfathers, great-great-grandfathers and great-great-great-grandfathers lived. They did not thoughtlessly scrape along the walls, trying to copy the figure of a killed bison with their right hand, and scratching their side with their left. There are no random elements among the rock carvings, all the drawings are strikingly uniform in technical terms and, probably, were made not by random, but by selected people (shamans? ).
There is still no exact answer to many questions regarding the level of intelligence and the nature of the worldview of ancient people. How, for example, to explain why they did not draw those animals that were eaten? Why in most caves in places where rock paintings were found, no traces of human activity were found, while in the neighboring "rooms" there are dozens of these traces (tools, bones of sheep and mountain goats)?
Altamira is the first rock art cave discovered in Europe (maybe the whole world) and that's why I am popular myself. But images in Altamira are far from the most ancient. In the next essay, I will talk about a cave that holds images 40.000 years old - La Castillo Cave.
