If you’re wondering what to see in Santillana del Mar, start by discovering its past at the Palacio de Velarde, a museum where you can enjoy an immersive experience that will take you on a journey through more than 500 years of the town’s history through architecture, art, emotion, and technology.
Because beyond its cobbled streets and medieval beauty, Santillana del Mar hides a unique history where inquisitors, dukes, counts, novelists, and spies have all left their mark. A history that you can immerse yourself in at this museum.
A museum created in a renovated original medieval palace, which is the ultimate expression of Renaissance architecture in Cantabria and which is transformed into a stage for the events and characters of the history of Santillana del Mar, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, to come to life through technology and make you enjoy an unforgettable visual and sensory experience.
Because the Velarde Palace is not just a place to see.
It is a space to experience history from within.
Dare to travel back in time and discover a new way of learning about the history of Santillana del Mar
The Velarde Palace is not only the only Renaissance palace in Cantabria that can be visited and an imposing 16th-century building. In its more than 2,000 m², spread over three floors, you can enjoy unique works of art, historical documents, sculptures, weapons, manuscripts, ceramics, and tapestries of great historical valuewhile listening to the stories of the palace’s former guardians, told by themselves.
Through holograms, the use of artificial intelligence, projections, digital sets, and interactive narratives, you can immerse yourself in the great events and figures that shaped the past of Santillana del Mar and learn the secrets of the town’s architecture, history, and soul.
Our guides specialists will take you through the original rooms of the Palace, telling you the most curious anecdotes from the history of the Palace, turning each visit into a fascinating story, adapted to all audiences.
Travel back in time through captivating stories of the ghosts of real historical figures such as Pedro Velarde y Villa, noblemen and emblematic figures of the Spanish Renaissance, while you immerse yourself in a visual and sensorial experience that will impact you.
Much more than a Museum in Santillana del Mar
With the arrival of the new season, at the Velarde Palace we have reopened our doors with new features that reinforce our vocation to be much more than a museum.
The big news is our new medieval weapons room, which not only includes valuable collector’s items and information panels, but It includes a medieval forge and a throne where you can sit to immortalize your visit to the museum and feel like a true king. medieval.
In addition, six of the 114 characters that make up our lithograph collection now come to life thanks to artificial intelligence, allowing you to hear the exploits and adventures of great figures such as El Cid, Hernán Cortés, Bartolomé Murillo, and Juan Sebastián Elcano told by themselves.
Finally, to make the visit more accessible to international tourists, we have installed a new simultaneous translation system in English and French that will allow them to enjoy the experience without missing a single detail.
If you are planning your visit to Cantabria and are looking for a different experience, we await you at the only museum in Santillana del Mar that combines history, technology, unique works of art, and entertainment for the whole family.
