[About Us] [Facilities] [Online Booking] [Special Offers]

For many years spas, with their natural springs and bathing galleries, have provided an ideal setting for a particular way of enjoying life; history has been made in these buildings where people have benefited from the healing effects of water. This is the case too with the Balneario de Solares – Solares Spa – where the spa tradition goes back to the 17th century. The spa and hotel complex had a classical heyday at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The earliest indications of the existence of a spa in Solares date from 1753. Its name appears in the Land Registry of Ensenada, although other references can also be found in the archives of the Marquess of Valbuena.

There are many references to its use from this period. For example, one account tells how a considerable number of French priests from the La Rochelle diocese escaped to Asturias because of the Revolution of 1789, and then went on to become keen users of the spa, which they visited every spring and autumn for many years.

In 1827 the first Bath House was built over the spring and one year later the water from the spring was officially declared to be fit for consumption by the health authorities. Daily life at the small spa centred on the Bath House, and as it grew in popularity the premises were extended in 1832 to include a further two Bathrooms.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Solares became the most important spa resort in Cantabria, attracting large numbers of visitors seeking the quality and characteristics of its waters and its facilities. At this time, a series of comfortable buildings were erected along the lines of the prestigious spa resorts of the rest of Europe, designed not just for the health-giving properties of their waters, but also to offer days of leisure and rest for their guests. In 1899 a new spa building was opened, with a swimming pool and a public chapel, and the new parklands were set out, with beautiful gardens and broad walkways.

In 1902 a plan was made to build a Grand Hotel, designed by the architect Lavín Casalis, who was at that time the Chief City Architect of Santander, and responsible for various important buildings in the capital city, such as the City Schools, the Fire Station, the Provincial Exhibition Halls for Industry and the Arts, and numerous buildings in the city centre and in the Sardinero area, as well as different hotels. The Grand Spa Hotel of Solares was closed to the public in 1976.

The Restauration of an Historic Building:

The Solares Spa Company undertook an ambitious project to recuperate and re-establish the tradition of the spa hotel and its surroundings, rebuilding and expanding the Grand Hotel itself, and developing completely new spa facilities.

El Hotel Balneario de Solares – The Solares Spa Hotel – opened its doors on 7th July 2006. The hotel is an elegant white building surrounded by the 100 year-old park. Its spacious, light-filled gallery and large rooms recall the golden age of the most select spa hotels of the beginning of the last century, but are equipped with thoroughly modern facilities. The hotel occupies two wings (the first is the original building from 1902, and the second is newly built), and each has four floors.