La Pasiega (Puente Viesgo, Cantabria)

The cave of La Pasiega, located in the municipality of Puente Viesgo and within the Monte Castillo cave complex, is one of the most important Paleolithic art stations in Cantabria. It has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list since July 2008, within the group “Altamira Cave and Paleolithic rock art of the Cantabrian coast.”

Located in the middle sector of the Pas River valley, near the Hornos de la Peña cave and on the same mountain that houses the Las Monedas, Las Chimeneas and El Castillo caves. The Pasiega is, fundamentally, an enormous gallery up to 120 meters long (known) that runs more or less parallel to the slope of the mountain, coming to the surface in six different places: six small mouths, most of them obstructed, two of which have currently been accommodated as entrances for visitors. The main gallery is approximately seventy meters long and opens into deeper, sinuous and labyrinthine secondary galleries that sometimes widen to form rooms. In this way, we have “room II-VIII”, the room of «gallery B» or «room XI» of «gallery C», all of them with Paleolithic decoration (both paintings and engravings).

In the vestibule of «gallery B» sites from the Upper Solutrean and the Lower Magdalenian were located, although there are also indications of older objects (Musterian). In what would be the first area of «gallery B», near its original entrance, numerous objects were found inserted in the fissures of the wall (flint, bones, teeth, etc.). One of the remains was dated to the late Lower Magdalenian.