MUSEO ETNOGRÁFICO DE CANTABRIA

Here is a small museum of popular traditions, unjustly ignored and really worth the trip for its rich collections. It is housed in an authentic 17th century country house, covered with ivy and surrounded by peaceful gardens. Divided into 11 rooms, the interior meticulously reconstructs the furniture and popular instruments used in the countryside in the 18th century: sideboards and kitchen utensils, a folding table, a still for making brandy, tools, a flax spinning wheel and astonishing one-piece ski clogs. On the first floor you can see the apartments of Pedro Velarde, a hero of the anti-Napoleonic resistance who was born and lived in this house; the furniture of his noble ancestors is still in place, such as the chair decorated with his family's coat of arms from the 17th century. Temporary exhibitions are also organized.

Note in passing the series of Epinal pictures illustrating the legends of the region. Some of the characters are fiercely coloured. La Ojáncana : child devourer with boar's teeth and enormous breasts that she throws on her back. El ojáncano: a red-bearded cyclops who hides in the mountains. El trenti: a little genius of the undergrowth made of leaves, moss and roots. Hiding in the bushes, he pulls the petticoats of young girls. El trasgo: another mischievous imp. When the thunder bursts, the grandmothers continue to exclaim: "The trasgos play with balls! ».