Echoes of Times Past

Echoes of Times Past
Cantabria
Magazine: May 2007

With slow, trudging steps, the thick heels of clogs sink into the earth still soft with morning dew, while the mist rises to unveil green fields and fruit trees in bloom. The old farmer walks firmly, his steps getting surer, a sack of hay over his shoulder, his gaze on towering mountain peaks. Los Picos de Europa dominate the valleys below, an unexpected skyline 2600m tall that contradicts our geographical perception of Spain: the flat and uniform meseta is far removed from the Cantabria region. Rivers have turned it into a curtain that defends a world rooted in ancient times, in its customs, its traditions and its food. A world that only recently opened its doors to the present. And to tourism.

Style and Tradition
Ancestral houses, old buildings, inns and restaurants, restored and transformed with authenticity, offer a bespoke service for exacting clients. This is La Casona de Cosgaya, where ibex and deer still roam and one might even meet a bear. The microclimate of the Liébana valley favours the kitchen gardens that grow the vegetables and legumes typically used in the local dish “cocido lebaniego”, a specialty of Casa Cavo in Potes. The town, a fusion of ancient buildings, ancestral homes, narrow bridges and streets, nestles in the middle of the valley and is crossed by the rivers Deva and Quiviesa. On Mondays the market attracts people from round about, while the church, hidden in the folds of the mountains, conserves the Lignum Crucis, the biggest piece of wood from the Cross of Jesus Christ. A place that, along with Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela, will have the privilege of celebrating Holy Year.

This corner of Spain reveals sweeping valleys and surprising mountain peaks that soar to 2.600m

Faces that Tell a Story
Close by, Cabuérniga valley is a vast natural reserve, home to deer and bucks, wild boar and foxes, as well as small towns with original rustic architecture, such as Bárcena Mayor. The bucolic landscape of Ruente is a short distance away, that of Carmona almost remote. Time seems to stand still as we enter the town, where we meet Signor Gonzales serenely working on a pair of “abarcas” (wooden clogs) outside his shop; his wife shows us the order book of work completed, that yet to do. In the distance, we see the outline of a woman in a checked apron in her kitchen garden. Yet 25km away we can exchange this setting for one with a woman in a straw hat and a bikini, sunbathing on Sardinero beach against a backcloth of elegant 19th century buildings on the one side and the waves of Mar Cantabrico on the other, which lap the region’s capital city Santander. Faces that Tell a Story