TRAVEL GUIDES DIRECTORY: SANTANDER SPAIN

PLACES OF INTEREST

The buildings and landmarks of Santander (from City Hall to Puerto Chico)

You can begin touring Santander at the city's central shopping and financial district, Plaza del Generalísimo, just opposite the modernist-style Ayuntamiento (City Hall). Behind City Hall you'll find the bustling Esperanza Market. You ll enjoy hours of shopping for anything on sale here. From Plaza de la Esperanza on the north side of the market you can see San Francisco Church.

Heading down Cervantes Street, you will come to the Fine Arts Museum and the Biblioteca y Casa-Museo Menéndez Pelayo. The Biblioteca is the former home and now museum and library of the renowned writer, Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo in Rubio Street. Nearby are the Central Post Office and the neoclassical Banco de España. By way of Jesús de Monasterio Street and Avenida de Calvo Sotelo, you can walk towards the marvelous cathedral containing La Cripta del Cristo (Christ's Crypt). These are found next to Plaza de Alfonso XIII. Nearby, other places you can tour include the Estación Marítima (Ferry Station), the Pereda Gardens and the Paseo Marítimo boardwalk which runs parallel to the docks.

To the north you'll find Paseo de Pereda, lined with beautiful buildings: the Iglesia de la Anunciación, dating from the 17th century, and Banco Santander's headquarters, among others. Banco Santander has two towers, and if you walk under the arch joining them, you come to Calle Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola and the Ensanche district of Santander. This is where the city first grew beyond the old walls. Here you can visit Plaza de José Antonio, containing the impressive Casa Pombo or the building known as Botín's Arches. You should not miss Santa Lucía Church as well, just next to Plaza de Cañadío.