Cave of Altamira, Santillana del Mar, Spain

The Cave of Altamira is located near the historic town of Santillana del Mar. It is renowned for prehistoric parietal cave art featuring charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings of contemporary local fauna and human hands. The earliest paintings were applied during the Upper Paleolithic, around 36,000 years ago.

Because of their deep galleries, isolated from external climatic influences, these caves are particularly well preserved. The caves are inscribed as masterpieces of creative genius and as the humanity’s earliest accomplished art. They are also inscribed as exceptional testimonies to a cultural tradition and as outstanding illustrations of a significant stage in human history.

Altamira was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 as a key location of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain.

Address

CA-134, Santillana del Mar, Spain

See all sites in Santillana del Mar

Details

Founded: 36,000 BCE
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Spain

More Information

en.wikipedia.org
whc.unesco.org
archaeology-travel.com

Rating

4.3/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby

Santander Cathedral (27,1 km)
Rioseco Abbey (66,9 km)
Virtus Castle (50 km)

User Reviews

Nils Götzen (5 months ago)
Tickets are only available locally at the counter and sold out at 9:30!!!!!! No tickets online, no reservation possible!!! What a joke! Spain, please wake up’

David Richards (5 months ago)
Looking at the website as it will form part of a road trip around Spain next year. Website and app are most informative and most certainly of great use in planning a visit. Really looking forward to seeing Altamira.

Will Bagnall (6 months ago)
Very well put-together exhibition, English translations of information was much appreciated. Shame that the temporary exhibition was closed due to Corona Virus though. Video of the history of the cave paintings was slightly dated, but still very informative. The recreations of the cave paintings were very impressive

Sara Alarcon (6 months ago)
Very nice museum... My only complain is that since the corona virus you have to wait a lot to enter and there's no bar or restaurant around to relax and wait...

Jose Garrido (6 months ago)
A good simulation of the original.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright TablinumCarlson

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Cave of Altamira