The Picos de Europa's mountain capital — stone bridges, orujo, and the Liébana valley
Potes is the main town of the Liébana valley in Cantabria and the gateway to the Picos de Europa National Park — a handsome medieval stone town of arcaded streets, a 15th-century fortified tower (Torre del Infantado), and a medieval bridge over the Deva river. The valley produces orujo, a potent local grape pomace spirit whose distilleries are concentrated in Potes and the surrounding villages. The Monasterio de Santo Toribio de Liébana, 2km outside town, claims to hold the world's largest fragment of the True Cross and is one of the four sites on the Christian calendar for a Jubilee Year.
Potes appears in documents from the 9th century as a trading point on the route through the Liébana valley. The Torre del Infantado (15th century) was built by the Counts of Trastámara as a defensive tower controlling valley access; it was extensively restored in the 20th century and now anchors the historic centre. The nearby Monasterio de Santo Toribio de Liébana has been a pilgrimage destination since at least the 9th century, when the monk Beatus of Liébana wrote his celebrated Commentary on the Apocalypse here — the Beatus manuscripts are among the most important medieval illuminated boo…