Puente Viesgo (Cantabria), a town of 2,900 inhabitants, is far from the glitter of the Principality of Monaco.
There are no shiny casinos or yachts, but tractors.
On the other hand, Puente Viesgo triumphs in archaeological matters thanks to its Paleolithic caves, whose findings and rock art have made it a key location to learn about periods from tens of thousands of years ago.
This legacy attracted Prince Albert I of Monaco at the end of the 19th century, patron of essential works to access that knowledge hidden among caves, and a century later it has once again connected Cantabria with the Principality.
The Puente Viesgo Rock Art Center, which opened in March 2023 and on January 19 inaugurated new facilities and permanent exhibition, aspires to an imminent visit from Albert II, great-great-grandson of the benefactor, in the hope that he will renew support lent by his ancestor to continue researching and disseminating the Cantabrian Paleolithic.
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The oldest rock art
The budding connection, in the absence of “the fine print” that they hope to settle before summer, satisfies Antonio Ontañón, director of the Museum of Prehistory and Archeology of Cantabria and the group of regional prehistoric caves.
The expert enjoys recounting the adventures of those ancestors.
Albert I of Monaco, prince between 1889 and 1922, had “many scientific and intellectual concerns and sponsored research, oceanographic work, explorations and a line on the origins of humanity and human paleontology with which he financed scientists, first personally and then with an Institute of Human Paleontology in Paris.”
The panels with photos and impacts in the press of the time recognize the prince's patronage and praise figures such as the French researchers Émile Cartailhac and Henri Breuil and the German Hugo Obermaier, assisted by Hermilio Alcalde del Río and Lorenzo Sierra, local prehistorians.
“They excavated the Castillo cave, the Pasiega cave, the Valle cave, Hornos de la Peña… the most important ones.
Albert I published the monographs of these works in 1911, still a reference,” adds Ontañón.
Representation of painted hands in the prehistoric caves of Cantabria.Emilio Fraile
The great-great-grandfather of the current prince “gave a great boost to prehistoric research, he was generous in financing works and luxury publications, in large format,” he says.
The center is nicknamed after Albert I of Monaco.
His descendant Albert II “has expressed his will” to continue with that collaboration.
Ontañón believes that the current prince wants to pay tribute to his great-great-grandfather because she has already published some memoirs about him, hence the confidence in renewing the alliance not extended by his father, Raniero III.
The Monegasque prince could not attend the inauguration, but his presence is expected soon.
There he will find the result of research on the caves of the Cantabrian mountain range.
The center brings together replicas, you can also visit the caves themselves, many of whose representations are still enigmas due to the difficulties that arise when it comes to knowing the motivations.
Theories point to the spiritual, family symbolism or the commemoration of the hunt, but part of the emotion consists of accepting the challenge of the unknown and trying to empathize with the authors, whose hands remain on those walls millennia later.
Ontañón has strived to provide a “sensory immersion” in the center, allowing people to touch and satisfy that instinct of touch that is impossible in the original caves.
“The more we know about them, the more restrictive we have to be to guarantee their conservation, we try to increase social awareness,” argues the historian.
Roberto Ontañón, director of Prehistoric Caves of Cantabria, in front of one of the representations of the caves. Emilio Fraile
The public can see the
Red Lady
smiling from her pedestal.
The figure measures 1.59 meters, weighs 59 kilos, has black hair and complexion and celebrates the capture of a salmon in her hands.
She is about 18,800 years old and represents one of the Paleolithic inhabitants of Puente Viesgo.
The statue was created after analyzing the bones smudged with red pigment, hence her nickname, found in the nearby El Mirón cave, buried by her contemporaries.
“We try to make it possible to compare rock art and explain the research methods,” says Ontañón, eager for the viewer to learn and enjoy like the specialists.
“Objects and ideas moved,” he adds, to decipher the finds of Mediterranean shells in the Cantabrian or Central European mountains: “Human and animal movements motivated by the weather encouraged encounters and trips.”
A realistic representation transfers to the museum the qualities of a cave with multiple bone remains, real deer jaws and the contents meticulously replicated with respect to the original space.
Ontañón proudly points out a large, dark brown piece with fine and delicate engravings.
It is the phalanx of an aurochs, those colossal bulls with immense horns that became extinct thousands of years ago and were quite a feast when one was managed to hunt one.
On it, some Cantabrian carved the figure of the animal itself, as if wanting to indicate that this bone belonged to the mammal.
There are also plenty of replicas of harpoons, projectile points for hunting, ornaments and Neolithic tools: "We want to answer questions about the origin of art from rock art and Cantabria."