Cave Paintings in Northern Spain (World Heritage)

According to commit4fitness, the caves in northern Spain are treasure chests of the cultural history of mankind. The 270 m long Altamira Cave was discovered in 1869 and, together with the 17 other caves, is an impressive testimony to the Paleolithic culture of Europe. They document the environment in the Paleolithic and show the high artistic skill of the Stone Age artists. The Altamira Cave alone contains around 930 images between 23,000 and 15,000 years old.

Cave Paintings in Northern Spain: Facts

Cave Paintings in Northern Spain: History

In the Stone Age Sistine Chapel

A stag roars, and yet it remains silent. A horse pauses. A doe runs away with its head stretched out. Black and red bisons trot and stand on broken rock. Is it a herd of males and females in the rut? Are they to be understood as symbols of human fertility? Do our ancestors give us an insight into their society of hunters and gatherers, in their form of cultic veneration?

When the last men, women and children from the Altamira cave set out on new hikes, they left behind gnawed animal bones, mussel shells and the ashes of their fires, unique art galleries with rock engravings and colored rock carvings, which are among the most important prehistoric testimonies of their kind in the world. It is thanks to a landslide on the Vispieres mountain that the access to the grotto was buried and all the bison, deer and horse bodies remained untouched for fourteen millennia. It was not until the 19th century that what had been covered by nature was broken up by human hands. Since the inhabitants of the valley of Santillana del Mar needed supplies of stones for building their houses, they attacked the hill with explosives. By chance, a farmer named Modesto Cuvillas came across the cave. From his discovery, he taught Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, a legal scholar and recreational archaeologist who owned a country house in the nearby village of Puente San Miguel. Sanz de Sautuola carried out research in Altamira for the first time in 1876, albeit without any results worth mentioning. However, the thought of the grotto never left him. Did he miss something? Driven by curiosity and eagerness to dig, he returned three years later, unnoticed by the public. One day he took his little daughter María with him, who accompanied him into the “prehistoric darkness”. Suddenly, in the weak light, the girl escaped: “Look, papa, painted oxen!” Sanz de Sautuola carried out research in Altamira for the first time in 1876, albeit without any results worth mentioning. However, the thought of the grotto never left him. Did he miss something? Driven by curiosity and eagerness to dig, he returned three years later, unnoticed by the public. One day he took his little daughter María with him, who accompanied him into the “prehistoric darkness”. Suddenly, in the weak light, the girl escaped: “Look, papa, painted oxen!” Sanz de Sautuola carried out research in Altamira for the first time in 1876, albeit without any results worth mentioning. However, the thought of the grotto never left him. Did he miss something? Driven by curiosity and eagerness to dig, he returned three years later, unnoticed by the public. One day he took his little daughter María with him, who accompanied him into the “prehistoric darkness”. Suddenly, in the weak light, the girl escaped: “Look, papa, painted oxen!” which accompanied him into the “prehistoric darkness”. Suddenly, in the weak light, the girl escaped: “Look, papa, painted oxen!” which accompanied him into the “prehistoric darkness”. Suddenly, in the weak light, the girl escaped: “Look, papa, painted oxen!”

María’s oxen were bison in the main gallery of the cave, ceiling frescoes showing powerful colossi more than one and a half meters tall. The wild cattle were created using incised contours, which unknown masters then colored black and red with charcoal and mineral substances. Accurately colored, they accentuated the upturned horns, the woolly hairy heads and front sections. They worked out the massive bodies with their raised shoulder regions. In the other tracts of the grotto, motifs from the same and previous epochs were added: hands, goats, carved doe heads as well as mysterious charcoal symbols and red areas. María had rediscovered what was later called the “Sistine Chapel of the Stone Age”. But it wasn’t that far.

Sanz de Sautuola spread the word of his discovery in an essay and attributed the cave paintings to prehistoric masters. But even the most open-minded scientists of the time could not believe the hobby researcher. It seemed completely absurd to them to place these elaborate paintings in the beginnings of mankind. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century, after the discovery of cave paintings in France, that the world of archaeologists became certain: Altamira was an art-historical sensation. However, this was too late a satisfaction for the first cave explorer of Altamira, since Sanz de Sautuola had already passed away at this point.

The Altamira Cave is located in Cantabria, just two kilometers from Santillana del Mar. In order to protect the precious cave drawings from being destroyed by the humid and warm human breath, the limitation of the number of visitors to 8,000 people per year introduced in 1982 was insufficient, which is why the cave had to be closed to the public. Instead, a museum was built nearby, in which a detailed replica of the cave (or the 1500 m² entrance area) can be viewed since 2001. There are more replicas of the rock carvings in the National Museum of Archeology in Madrid and since 1964 in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.