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Santander History, Spain

Santander, History – The Beginnings

Santander History is full of events and glorious battles, of resistance and defeat, all of which make what is now known as one of the most beautiful cities of Cantabria. The name of this amazing place comes from the Latin name of the monastery “Sancti Emeterii”, the central institute around which Santander truly began to develop at the beginning of the XI century. The oldest remaining of the distanced past tell the story of an agitated existence of this city. The cave paintings of Altamira are fifteen thousand years old, all speaking about the first civilizations that appeared in the prehistoric era.

Just like every other city of the Old Continent, Santander at its turn had to face the Roman invasion, to which it resisted fiercely. Basically, the city’s origin is closely related to the harbor that the Romans settled here, called Portus Victoriae. Nevertheless, the Roman influence has not been as important as in many other European cities, thus Santander managed to conserve its original roots.

Santander, History – Middle Age

In 409 the Romans decided to leave Santander for good, but almost 200 years after, the Visigoths grew in interest about this rich and beautiful region and decided to found the Dutch of Cantabria here. More precisely the Bay of Santander became of great interest for the foreign populations who saw in this place a great source of wealth. And they weren’t wrong. Soon Santander turned into an important port of Castille and trading point with the New World. However, for a long period of time historians have been quite confused about its administrative structure as some claims Santander belonged to Castille, other to Asturias

Santander, History – The Modern City

In 1755 Santander was proclaimed “city” and the years to come brought nothing but prosperity to this amazingly beautiful place bordered by the sea. King Alfonso XIII made a passion for this town and did his best to help at the development of his favorite city. Soon Santander became a beach resort for the royal family and not only. Everything from architecture to culture, economy and politics boomed.

Unfortunately, Santander had to go through a horrible event, the Great Fire of 1941 that lasted for 2 days and destroyed most of the medieval part of the city.

Nowadays the city brags with a rich and glorious past, amazing castles and monasteries that tell the story of Santander History and invite tourists from all over the world to come and visit Spain. Bilbao Travel Guide and Pamplona Travel Guide will convince you even more to buy the tickets to Spain as soon as possible...

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