Santander is a city with a population of 185,000 inhabitants distributed along it´s 35 squared kilometer surface. It is the capital of the Autonomous region of Cantabria. It is a city in Spain that is famous for it´s beautiful beaches, landscape and Passenger and Commercial Port.

Santander, Cantabria in northern Spain is also known to be a university city, it´s young and dynamic. With the international airport, this city receives mass amounts of tourism especially in the summer. It is a locality with mild temperatures all year round. It is a strange thing if the thermometers go above 31-32 degrees celsius in the summer.

Of it´s history, Santander used to be known as Portus Victriae Iuliobrigensium during the roman era, this makes it that much more obvious that the port and it´s bay century after century has always held great importance.
In the 8th century Alfonso the III El Casto founded the Abby of Cuerpos Santos in the Monestary of Somorrostro. In the 12th century Alfonso VIII gives the Ciudad de Fuero, , and city began to grow, first inside it´s fortressed walls. Later on in the 13th century they began the construction process of the church Principal de Villa, in this same century Santander also participated in the conquest of southern Spain, cities such as Seville were recovered, and Santander began having agreements with other municipalites like Laredo or Castro Urdiales and other cities such as San Sebastian to compete with the markets of Flanders and England in the Gulf of Vizcaya.
One of the saddest chapters in the Port of Santander took place at the end of the 15th century when the Flander army brought the plague on board their boats and 6,000 people died, which was equivalent to 80% of their people.
In the 17th century and the 18th century Santander took control again after the disaster that the Flanders provoked. It developed into the capital of Diocese and the Collegiate Church moved up to become a Cathedral.

After the 18th century, once recovered from the crisis, the Port of Santander began to have life and began to develop as a city once again. One of the main points is the spanish Colonies since the Kingdom of Castille used this port to import and export materials that went to other colonies. When the Kingdom of Castille and Spain lost their colonies, Santander again suffered a down period, but the development of infrastructures and urban developments allowed this city to recover the economic activity rapidly and allowed it´s port to keep growing and commercializing.
In the 20th century, we must also mention the construction of the Magdalena Palace a present to the city from King Alfonso the 8th.

In the 20th century Santander suffered a strong hit, the city fire in 1941 and the destruction of the historic center.

Today Santander is a portuary city, with a commercial port as well a passenger one in the Ferry station.

In this city we must mention it´s culture, and it´s beaches like that of El Sardinero!

Come and enjoy your holidays in this beautiful region of Cantabria!