Discovering Cantabria: El capricho de Gaudí

Villa Quijano, better known as El Capricho, is a modernist building located in Comillas. It was a project by Antoni Gaudí and built between 1883 and 1885, commissioned by Máximo Díaz de Quijano.

This work belongs to the orientalist stage of Gaudí, period in which the architect made a series of works of marked oriental taste, inspired by the art of the Near and Far East, as well as in the Hispanic Islamic art, mainly the Mudejar and Nasrid.

The building fell into disrepair after the Civil War, a state in which it continued despite its declaration as an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1969. In 1977 the last descendant of the López-Díaz de Quijano, sold the property to businessman Antonio Díaz who Restored in 1988 and turned it into a restaurant. In 1992 it was bought by the Japanese group Mido Development. Finally, in 2009, the building became a museum.

CURIOSITIES

• It was a palace designed to fix the summer residence of its owner.
• It is one of the few works that Gaudí designed outside Catalonia.
• It is framed in a privileged natural environment, between sea and mountains, which must have impacted on its day.
• At first glance you can not appreciate the amount of details and ingenious solutions you have.
• Gaudí distributed the rooms of the Capricho based on day-to-day activities, making, in turn, follow the path of the sun (therefore the main symbol of this building are sunflowers).

For more information: https://www.elcaprichodegaudi.com/ 

There you can find out the rates to visit it, opening hours, how to get there ... besides indicating on your own page your social networks with which you can see photographs or even videos of the place.

-Marta.

Discovering Cantabria: Santander's Cathedral

The current building of the Cathedral of Santander are two overlapping churches of Gothic style.

The lower, was built in the first third of s. XIII is the parish of Christ and the superior was built during that century and had to be rebuilt and expanded in 1941.

In the Middle Ages it was the Abbey of San Emeterio and San Celedonio, later it was the Collegiate Church of the Holy Bodies and later in 1754 in the Cathedral of Santander.

THE LOW CHURCH OR THE CHRIST

It consists of three naves with four sections, plus the apses (part of the church located at the head, which houses the altar table). It measures 31 meters long and 18 meters wide. It is accessed by two doors, its style is transition from Romanesque to Gothic.Surprise the arches for such low vaults and the strong pilasters that support the upper church. Most of the capitals and keys have vegetal decoration, in some there is symbolic iconography.

During the archaeological excavations (1883) on the floor of the Church of Christ appeared abundant remains of a primitive Roman settlement, thermal facilities and fortification. You can see part of these excavations behind the area of ​​glazed floor. The chamber of the Roman oven was where the heads of the Holy Martyrs were kept during the Middle Ages: San Emeterio and San Celedonio.

THE HIGH CHURCH

The main access door opens to the cloister on the south.

In the s. XVI and XVII chapels were built nearby and in 1941 after the fire had to make some reforms. It was reopened to the cult in 1953, with double capacity thanks to the transept, dome, apse and ambulatory. The Gothic style was respected in the recovered part.

The little decoration consists of corbels, capitals, keys and a frieze of both vegetal and historical character. At the doors of access, the concentrated decorative abundance attracts attention where you can see real shields of castles and lions from Spain.

INSIDE

As the fire of 1941 burned the interior of the high church, most of the altarpieces except one or come from other churches or are new.

Inside the Cathedral of Santander there are several chapels where you will find:

• The marble pile that has Arabic inscriptions brought by the Cantabrian sailors conquerors of Seville.
• On the ambulatory, contemplate the beautiful fresco on a grandstand.
• Altar with reliquary of medieval origin.
• The choir of the Cabildo
• On the outside of the tower we find the monumental statues of the 4 evangelists.

• In the nave of the North is the tomb of the Santander-born writer Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo.

THE CLOISTER

It is a sober Gothic.

The naves are closed to the garden by arched galleries and slender mullions, reinforced by robust curved arches.

All the ships were marked in chapels, of which two stand out:

• The one of San Pedro where the general councils of the town were celebrated.
• The one of Santiago that was built by the important family of real shipowners of the Escalante.

Pics:

- https://www.yelp.es/biz_photos/catedral-de-santander-santander

-http://eltomavistasdesantander.com/2013/06/20/la-iglesia-del-cristo-se-construyo-sobre-una-terma-romana/

-Marta.

Female writer: Laura Gallego (1977-)

Discovering Cantabria: Bay of Santander

Hi guys! I'm Marta, how long without showing up here, right?

If you did not know, I'm in charge of the section "Discovering Cantabria", today I'm going to talk a bit about Santander Bay and show some pictures, I hope you like it.

It is located in the central area of the Cantabrian coast, next to the regional capital. It is the largest in Cantabria and it is located in the port of Santander. It is formed by the union of several minor rivers, such as those of Solía, San Salvador and Cubas, this last mouth of the Miera River, and on its banks there are extensive and crowded beaches such as those of Peligros, La Magdalena and Bikinis in Santander, El Puntal, Somo.

The Bay of Santander is the only one in Spain that belongs to the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World.

Photographs by: @mccshoot

-Marta.

Female writer: Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)

Discovering Cantabria: Palacio de La Magdalena

Hi guys! In this blog entry you will know a new place in Cantabria. Today I will introduce you to the Palacio de la Magdalena, and also I will tell you some curious facts about it.

The Palacio de La Magdalena is a building laid on the peninsula of Magdalena, opposite the island of Mouro, in Santander (Cantabria, Spain), and that was built between 1909 and 1911, to accommodate the Spanish Royal Family. In 1977, it happened to be the property of the municipality of Santander

CURIOUS FACTS

• The Palace served for several functions during eight decades, that were damaging its state: international summer courses were held, it was a hospital, temporary residence for the victims of the Santander fire, it was a concentration camp for the prisoners of the dictatorship ...
• In these courses, great people from Spain have given classes throughout the summers, among them Miguel de Unamuno or Federico Garcia Lorca.
• It is currently the venue for conferences and meetings; during the summer the City Council transfers it to the Menéndez Pelayo International University as the center of its activities. In addition, it preserves a museum area that recreates the former Royal Residence and can also be visited.

• The Magdalena Palace was the scene of the Gran Hotel series: the exteriors of the series were filmed in the palace gardens.
• In the park of the Magdalena Palace there are many miniature wooden statues that Rogelio Verdeja molds with a chainsaw in his dead moments

Photographer

-Marta.

Female writer: Aphra Behn (1640-1689)