Type of site:
Interpretation center
Place of location: Monte Castillo
Village/Town: Puente Viesgo
Municipality: Puente Viesgo (Cantabria)
Region: Cantabria
State: Spain
Telephone: +34942598425
Website: https://cuevas.culturadecantabria.com/centro-de-arte-rupestre-de-cantabria-horarios/
E-mail: reservascuevas@culturadecantabria.es
Natural Environment:
Cantabria Rock Art Centre “Alberto I de Mónaco” is located in the municipality of Puente Viesgo, which is the capital of the historic Toranzo Valley, in the middle valley of the river Pas.
It is about 20 kilometres from Santander, Cantabria, and has a small population of about 3,000 inhabitants.
The village lies at the foot of the mountain of El Castillo (a regular cone-shaped peak), where there are several caves containing examples of Palaeolithic art.
Archaeological evidences in the site:
This visitor centre for the caves of Cantabria is a place of great interest for learning about the European Palaeolithic period and its art. The centre’s exhibition shows how the caves of Cantabria preserve important archaeological sites with evidence of human occupation spanning the entire Palaeolithic period, with evidence from the Upper Palaeolithic (between 42,000 and 12,000 years ago) being particularly notable. Of all the caves in Cantabria, a total of 10 stand out for their unique traces of the artistic and symbolic activity of the human groups that inhabited Europe during the last ice age, and these have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. These are the caves of Altamira, La Garma, El Castillo, Las Monedas, La Pasiega, Las Chimeneas, El Pendo, Covalanas, Hornos de la Peña and Chufín.