Spain Guide
Cantabria and Asturias
Santillana del Mar
No less an authority than Jean-Paul Sartre, in Nausea, hailed SANTILLANA DEL MAR, 26km west of Santander, as "le plus joli village d'Espagne". While the crowds that flock here have unquestionably diminished its appeal, on a quiet day it remains as beautiful as ever, abounding in gorgeous sandstone churches and mansions.
Though Santillana consists of little more than two pedestrianized streets and a couple of plazas – Mayor and Las Arenas – it feels more like a sizeable medieval town that never grew beyond its original core than a village. The scale and elegance of its ochre-coloured stone buildings make strolling a delight, even if most now hold restaurants, hotels or souvenir shops, and the farms and fields that climb the adjacent hillsides give it a lovely rural atmosphere.
Many of the fifteenth- to eighteenth-century mansions clustered close to the Plaza Mayor still belong to the original families, but their noble owners have rarely visited in the last couple of centuries. Among the finest is the Casa de los Hombrones, on c/Cantón, which was named after the two moustached figures that flank its grandly sculpted escutcheon.
The village's unusual name derives from a bastardization of "Santa Juliana", put to death by her husband for refusing to renounce her virginity, whose remains were brought here 1200 years ago. Referring to its literal translation, the locals jokily call it the "town of the three lies" – as it's neither very holy (santi) nor particularly flat (llana), and despite the del Mar actually stands a few kilometres back from the sea.
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