Santander

Santander owes its existence to its harbour, sheltered on the north side of the bay. Its Roman name was Portus Victoriae Iuliobrigensium, and in the 9th century Alfonso II founded the Abbey of the Holy Bodies here; the town is first mentioned in a document of 1068. Alfonso VIII of Castile granted a charter in 1187. Through the Middle Ages it was two walled towns on either side of a creek, building ships for the crown from Cantabrian timber, and it became an important port for Castile and later for trade with the Americas. It officially became a city in 1755.

From the 1840s the fashion for sea bathing turned El Sardinero into a resort for the wealthy, and under Alfonso XIII Santander became the court's favourite summer retreat; the city gave the king the Magdalena Palace. Disaster struck on 3 November 1893, when the steamship Cabo Machichaco, carrying dynamite, caught fire at a pier in the city centre and exploded, killing about 590 people and destroying dozens of buildings. In the Civil War the city stayed Republican until Nationalist forces captured it on 26 August 1937, after which many prisoners were executed.

On the night of 15 to 16 February 1941 a fire broke out and, driven by a strong southerly wind, burned for two days, destroying most of the medieval centre, gutting the cathedral and leaving thousands of families homeless. The city was rebuilt with broad boulevards, and the Plaza Porticada was completed in 1950 as a new centre.

Santander's cultural life has long revolved around summer. The Menéndez Pelayo International University is a major international summer university, and the Festival Internacional de Santander, which grew out of entertainment for its foreign students in 1948, is one of Spain's oldest music festivals, staging opera, ballet and concerts every August. The Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition and an international organ festival are also held here. The Centro Botín, designed by Renzo Piano for the foundation of the banking family, stands on columns over the bay as a museum and study centre, completed in 2017.

The city is closely linked with Banco Santander, founded here in 1857; its legal headquarters remain in the city, although the bank is run from outside Madrid. Writers associated with Santander include the novelist José María de Pereda and Concha Espina, both honoured in the Pereda Gardens, and the scholar Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, whose library and house-museum are in the city.

Festivals follow the seasons: the Virgen del Mar on Whit Monday, the San Juan bonfire on El Sardinero, the Baños de Ola recalling the old bathing season, Santiago in July and the patron saints' feast at the end of August. Football means Racing de Santander, who returned to the top division in 2026, and the airport is named after the golfer Seve Ballesteros.

About 175,000 people lived in the municipality in 2025, making Santander the largest city in Cantabria. The economy is built on services rather than heavy industry: the regional government, the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital, the University of Cantabria and Banco Santander are major employers, and culture, leisure and tourism are an important part of the economy, with most visitors coming from elsewhere in Spain.

The port remains busy, with cargo traffic and ferries to Britain and Ireland, and the city has been used as a pilot smart city, with some 12,000 sensors embedded in its streets. Daily life runs between the rebuilt centre and the long bay front that links Puertochico with the Magdalena and El Sardinero.

The rhythm is seasonal. In summer the city fills with holidaymakers, the beaches are crowded and the music festival brings international performers; in winter Santander is a quiet, rainy administrative city where life moves indoors to bars and cafés.

Santander's cooking is Cantabrian and based mainly on seafood. Popular shellfish include almejas, clams, and muergos, razor clams; the fish include sea bream, red mullet, anchovies, sea bass and sardines; and squid and cuttlefish are everyday food. Typical dishes of the city include rabas, fried calamari, and seafood dishes run from sea bass and sardines to morguera.

The great inland dish is cocido montañés, a Cantabrian stew dating from the 17th century. It is made with dried large white beans and collard greens, with a compangu of pork from the pig slaughter: bacon, pork ribs, morcilla and chorizo. It is a heavy dish, eaten above all at lunch in winter. Santander is also known for double donuts, a local pastry.

The Mercado de la Esperanza, a large covered market just north of the town hall, is the place to see the day's catch alongside local meat and produce, and the old Mercado del Este has become a food court. In summer the cafés and ice-cream parlours of El Sardinero are full.