Logbook · 6 places

Cave of la Peña de Candamo

Candamo, Avilés, Asturias

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Nature · 2 Activities · 1 Curiosities

Spain › Principality of Asturias › Avilés › Candamo › Cave of la Peña de Candamo

Cave of la Peña de Candamo

Nature · Candamo, Avilés, Asturias

Located in the Asturian concejo of Candamo, in the village of San Román, the cave holds one of the largest collections of Palaeolithic cave art in the north of the peninsula, dated to around 18,000 years ago, in the Solutrean period. It was discovered by a resident nicknamed El Cristo in the 19th century, officially in 1914; in 1919 Eduardo Hernández Pacheco published the first scientific study. Its main feature is the Muro de los Grabados, six metres long and eight metres high, with figures of horses and other animals; at the top of that chamber is the Camarín, with horses and a bull. Unesco listed it in 2008, within the group Cave of Altamira and Palaeolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain, and access is now very limited after vandalism and uncontrolled visitor numbers caused irreversible damage.

Photo: Nachosan (CC BY-SA 3.0)

What to see and do in Candamo