Collegiate Church of Santa Juliana and its cloister

What it is

The collegiate church gives the town its name: Santillana comes from Sancta Iuliana. According to tradition, a group of monks brought the relics of Saint Juliana, martyr of Nicomedia, and founded a monastery here in the 9th century; Turespaña dates it to the year 870. It became a collegiate church in the 11th century and in the 12th the original monastery was transformed into the present Romanesque collegiate church, Cantabria's great Romanesque ensemble: three naves, a dome, a transept, three semicircular apses and a tower. The transept and apses keep their original barrel vaults. Santa Juliana has always been a landmark on the Camino de Santiago, and the Cantabrian Government's leaflet on the town records that Saint Francis of Assisi passed through here between 1213 and 1214. The visit takes about three quarters of an hour, longer if you stop at each capital in the cloister.

What to look at

The portal. A round arch with archivolts, and above it a Byzantine-looking Christ in Majesty; higher up, Saint Juliana victorious, holding the devil on a chain. In front, an atrium flanked by two lions.

The cloister. This is what is most remembered of the visit and, for the Cantabrian Government, a magnificent example of Romanesque, with its carved capitals.

Inside. Medieval tombs and Romanesque reliefs of the 11th and 12th centuries; the Romanesque baptismal font; the tomb of Saint Juliana, with its late Gothic recumbent figure; and the Renaissance high altarpiece, by a Burgos master of the early 16th century, with a late Gothic predella added and a Baroque image of Saint Juliana between two Solomonic columns. On the high altar there is a 17th-century embossed silver frontal and, beneath it, a Romanesque one.

Opening hours and entry

There is a ticket for the cloister and interior. The hours change with the season and the official sources we consulted do not publish them: confirm on 942 818 812 or 639 830 520 before going, or at the tourist office, at [email protected]. If a service is under way, respect the Mass.

Getting there

It is in Plaza del Abad Francisco Navarro, at the end of the main street, next to Plaza de las Arenas. On foot from any of the car parks at the town entrance, along calle de Juan Infante and calle de la Carrera, which leads straight down to it. The cobbles are uneven: wear comfortable shoes.

What to combine

The collegiate church is the end of the walk through the town: arrive along calle del Cantón and calle del Río, or the other way round, start here and climb to Plaza Mayor. Afterwards, on the outskirts, the Altamira Museum and its neocave rounds off the day, and with children, the zoo. For an afternoon snack, milk with sponge cake, as the town's tradition demands.