SPAIN

Spain, situated in the most occidental extreme of Europe is well-known for its beaches all arround its coast.

In the middle of the north cost is located Cantabria, authentic treasure of the green Spain.

Cantabria appears on the Spanish littoral as if it was returning from the high mountainous chains for those who think up its fluvial basins.

The municipality of Piélagos spreads along 87'2 km2 in the limit of the coastal band with the valleys of interior, to the west of Santander, in the northern part of the Cantabrian sea.

The municipality of Piélagos, of great singularity among those who integrate the Community of Cantabria, relies on an undoubted attraction for its landscape beauty, for its residential character and for its tourist potential.

Dynamic municipality with a spectacular population growth that nowadays places around 20.000 inhabitants. At present the municipal area is integrated by 12 villages constituted in local meetings, with the capital in Renedo of Piélagos: Arce, Barcenilla, Boo, Carandía, Liencres, Mortera, Oruña, Parbayón, Quijano, Renedo, Vioño and Zurita.

The flag of the municipality of Piélagos is of green bottom interrupted by two stripings white,  one placed in the top and the other one in the low part. Inserted the heraldic shield surrounded with twelve stars, which represent twelve villages of the municipality.

The first remains of human occupation of the valley are attested by the discovery of deposits inside his prehistoric caves and the great number of early medieval ceramics from the Top Paleolithic up to the High Middle Ages. There are great the vestiges of the past that show us the rich history of the valley, but probably it is Zurita's Stela (s. II-III B.C.) the most representative and spectacular of our ast.

It was the first one of the valleys in resorting to the route of the right to be liberated of the jurisdiction of the dominion, beginning the so called Old Lawsuit in 1430, which was a precedent of the famous Lawsuit of the Valleys, from which the current Cantabria arose.

A tour through the wealth of patrimony illustrating the history of the Valley is a good way to get to know the municipality. What is more, the Town Hall of Piélagos, ever interested in its cultural offering, goes to great lengths each year to develop programs that offer a wide variety of events: Theatre, dance, folklore, music, talk, exhibits…

The towns of the region are generously endowed with mansions and large country homes, replete with spectacular coats of arms and the emblems representing the power of prominent family lineage.

Festivals and Traditions

            The municipality of Piélagos of catholic religion, it gives samples of his Christian fervor across the numerous local holidays in which the different saints are venerated. Within Piélagos, an historical crossroad, there are any number of religious buildings of varied architectural parentage-everything from small chapels, to large parish churches with slender steeple, to the great Sanctuary of the Virgen de Valencia, a much venerated figure in the entire Valley. The best churches and civil buildings were erected during the Modern Age.

Emphasizing of among all, San Antonio on June 13, San Roque on August 16 and on all of them the worship to the Virgin of Valencia on September 8, mistress of the municipality.

           

According to popular belief, shepherds in the 15^th century happened upon a small, simple image inside the core of a burning oak trunk that came to be known as “the Burning Virgin”.

The image began to gain momentum and its popularity soon surpassed the limits of Piélagos, transported by the constant flow of pilgrims. A sanctuary was erected in 1622 and underwent constant remodelling before achieving great artistic beauty with the addition of its portico.

            Every  September 8th  numerous religious acts are celebrated in honour t the virgin. Devout followers pilgrimage with devotion taking in their hands branches of flowers to make a colouring mantle to their mistress.

             It is the appointment to recall the canticles and traditional dances to the sound of the woodpecker and drum. It is the day in which his peoples adorn themselves with his regional suits and celebrate with  happiness the holiday.

We can forget to mention the contests of traditional sports as “Bolos”, “Salto Pasiego”, Medio Maratón Bajo Pas” and cycling not even certainly the invitation to eat all his assistants to the typical “Paella and Té del Puerto”.

  In 2004, the municipal authorities received endorsement of  the celebration as a feast day of Regional Interest for Tourism.

Other one of the holidays that are celebrated in the municipality is " The Festival of the Tourist " in Liencres's locality. In which we see off the summer and it is used as honoring all the tourists who visit us during the summer season.

Gastronomy

In this Cantabrian riverside sub-region you will find the most knowledgeable elver fishermen. Elvers  are abundant in the area´s  waterways, but catching them requires great intuition, skill, and sacrifice. The best season is between November and March. The abundance of salmon pools turned this tasty fish into the mainstay of the diet of valley dwellers centuries ago. The rich coastline offers a wide selection of fish and shellfish. The green pastures and gentle hills offer gook grazing for excellent beef and the farmlands make for quality garden produce. The area is noted for its gastronomic possibilities, boasting innovative as well as traditional cuisine. Top-quality ingredients and careful preparation are enough to guarantee a great dining experience.

Given the cattle tradition of the municipality obtains one of the raw materials of the cuisine and confectionary the milk, always fresh and creamy.

The landscape of the Municipality of Piélagos is defined by his diversity and quality. Beaches, sandbanks, , steep, massive coastal and small saws of interior form a landscape of great beauty. The action of the wind has constituted in Liencres the major dune complex of the whole Cantabrian coast line, with a scanty vegetable coverage, emphasizing the barrón, the marine thistle, the lechetrezna, the clavelina ... that limits the fauna to small reptiles as the green lizard, and to colonies of birds that nest in the dunes. The need to fix the dunes determined the plantation of maritime pine in 1949. 

            In the whole interior of the municipality there spreads the autochthonous forest consisted of oaks, chestnut-trees, ash-trees, oaks and hollies. The fauna of this zone is constituted by greedy birds and small reptiles and rodents. Birds stand out as the dove, the “perdiz and chochin”.      

The municipality of Piélagos enjoys a wealth of landscape of singular beauty. On the one hand the zone of interior with a soft relief that is crossed by the river Pas, which is a Natural Space Protected from Cantabria, declared Place of Community Importance for Decision of the European Commission of December 7, 2004, and included in the Net of Natural Spaces Protected from Cantabria

On the other hand, the coastal area  presumes of the blue of his waters and of the gilding of his beaches and sandbanks that border to the municipality along  8 kilometres.

In all this coastal band are observed exceptional examples of platform of graze, cliffs and "rasas" that they are typical erosive forms of coasts in setback.

There has been declared Point of Geological Interest by the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain.

Route 1: Route along the left margin of the river Pas.

Route 2: Ancient “Via Agrippa”.

Route 3: Route along the right margin of the river Pas.

Route 4: Route around mount Tolío.

AULA DE ADULTOS

Mission

The Aula de Adultos mission is to develop activities, both theoretic and practical, to facilitate disadvantaged people, such as adult people and women, the entry to the labour market.

Activity areas

• Young people needing basic education and professional training.

• Adult people, mainly women, who need training on health (infirmary area), especially aimed to the elderly people care (geriatrics area).

• Unemployed people who need to get skills and abilities in varied professional areas. 

Objectives 

• To inform public opinion about the absolute necessity of permanent education for the adult people.

• Increasing basic education level and professional skills on the following groups:

>   Illiterate active-aged people.

>   Disadvantaged people, with no basic education.

>   Active-aged women, to promote their labour market insertion.

>   Ethnic minorities.

• To provide unemployed people education and training to manage official degrees and diplomas that will make it easier their labour market insertion.

• To give people cultural mechanisms that will let them face the realities of society, economy and culture in a democratic and critical way.

• To value the big significance of collaboration, solidarity, participation and autonomy as a basis for the personal and community development.