Having visited the caves yesterday, we spent today looking around Santillana. Described as a town, it is really little more than a village but it is stuffed full of aristocratic villas dating from the 15th to the 18th centuries and owned by many minor noble families. Little is known about the Roman settlement but it was the very important monastery, establish by the 9th century, that lead to the development of the town. The current large collegiate church of Saint Juliana dates to the 12th century and is very attractive externally although, with the exception of the alterpiece, the interior is surprisingly plain.
It was interesting to see that posing is not restricted to our era – here, rather than having the expensive car parked outside the large house, they fought over having the largest, most elaborate coat of arms as a stone sculpture on the house. In one case we saw three massive coats of arms on a single villa. It was also interesting to read that part of the reason for the wealth of the town was the fact that it was (and still is) on two of the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, resulting huge movement of people, ideas and commercial exchanges. In the 17th and 18th centuries the sons of many of the minor nobles brought back fortunes from the South American colonies.
It was a beautiful day, mild with bright blue skies, which was ideal for wandering around the town admiring the architecture. We stopped for lunch in the main square (Plaza Major) where we opted for the 'menu of the day', costing €14 (approx. £10) for three courses with bread, wine and water. I started with the local delicacy of 'Cocido Montanes' – a huge bowl of casseroled beans, cabbage, venison, salami and black pudding. It was delicious but more like a main course than a started – Jane's Lasagne was almost as filling. The second course of sliced pork loin with chips was followed by rice pudding. By this stage, the thought of standing up was not good but we knew that we needed to continue walking for the rest of the afternoon to let the food go down! If I say that we didn't finish all of the wine, our friends will know that we must have been seriously full! As I write this at 22:00, I haven't had anything else to eat and I am certainly not hungry.
We finished the visit by looking around an exhibition in two of the villas in the Plaza Major. This turned out to be devoted entirely to matadors and bullfighting – interesting but there was rather a lot of it!
Photos: View of Santillana and the collegiate church of Saint Juliana; The 16th century Palacio de Velarde showing one of its three coats of arms; One of the more complex coats of arms; Interesting architecture.
It was interesting to see that posing is not restricted to our era – here, rather than having the expensive car parked outside the large house, they fought over having the largest, most elaborate coat of arms as a stone sculpture on the house. In one case we saw three massive coats of arms on a single villa. It was also interesting to read that part of the reason for the wealth of the town was the fact that it was (and still is) on two of the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, resulting huge movement of people, ideas and commercial exchanges. In the 17th and 18th centuries the sons of many of the minor nobles brought back fortunes from the South American colonies.
It was a beautiful day, mild with bright blue skies, which was ideal for wandering around the town admiring the architecture. We stopped for lunch in the main square (Plaza Major) where we opted for the 'menu of the day', costing €14 (approx. £10) for three courses with bread, wine and water. I started with the local delicacy of 'Cocido Montanes' – a huge bowl of casseroled beans, cabbage, venison, salami and black pudding. It was delicious but more like a main course than a started – Jane's Lasagne was almost as filling. The second course of sliced pork loin with chips was followed by rice pudding. By this stage, the thought of standing up was not good but we knew that we needed to continue walking for the rest of the afternoon to let the food go down! If I say that we didn't finish all of the wine, our friends will know that we must have been seriously full! As I write this at 22:00, I haven't had anything else to eat and I am certainly not hungry.
We finished the visit by looking around an exhibition in two of the villas in the Plaza Major. This turned out to be devoted entirely to matadors and bullfighting – interesting but there was rather a lot of it!
Photos: View of Santillana and the collegiate church of Saint Juliana; The 16th century Palacio de Velarde showing one of its three coats of arms; One of the more complex coats of arms; Interesting architecture.
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