The Museum of Altamira, in Santillana del Mar, the most important
Altamira Museum is one of the most visited museums in Cantabria and one of the most important museums of the North near the Guggenheim Bilbao. Is very near the original entrance to the cave of Altamira, near Santillana del Mar. With a total investment in the museum of more than 24 million euros, the neocave is the “jewel” of the museum. This is an exact reproduction of the original cave made using the latest technologies. The tour of the neocave is done in groups of 20 people every 25 minutes and you need to buy a ticket to enter. Along with the neocave, houses the museum of prehistory with the findings found in Altamira cave and adjacent.
The Altamira Cave is closed to the public temporarily from the September 1, 2002 for research purposes. Currently the database is complete visits for the next five years, and the impossibility of ensuring the visit in advance so we can not accept new applications until you contact the reopening of the cave. A multidisciplinary group of National Research Council and the Spanish Historical Heritage Institute has analyzed the environmental parameters and the degree of microbiological contamination of the cavity in order to determine the actual conditions of conservation and to establish a new regime of visits for the next years.