Unquera is a village with 803 inhabitants (

INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * Instituto Nacional de Estadística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional de Estatística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional Elec ...

2005) in the municipality of Val de San Vicente, in the west of the province of

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

, Spain. Sitting on the ría de Tina Menor, at the mouth of the River Deva it borders

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...

. It is famous throughout Spain for its pies of Unquera. Unquera is also known as the entrance to the Hermida gorge, the most usual way to access the

Liébana Liébana is a ''Comarcas of Cantabria, comarca'' of Cantabria (Spain). It covers 575 square kilometres and is located in the far southwest of Cantabria, bordering Asturias, León (province), León and Palencia (province), Palencia. It is made up o ...

district, which has become the main throughway of the town. This route is also part of the Camino Lebaniego, which links the Caminos de Santiago of the North and French route. The population depends in part on Pesués, the municipal capital, where the town hall, the barracks of the

Guardia Civil The Civil Guard ( es, Guardia Civil, link=no; ) is the oldest law enforcement agency in Spain and is one of two national police forces. As a national gendarmerie force, it is military in nature and is responsible for civil policing under the au ...

and the primary school are located.

History

During the Old Regime, the municipality of Val de San Vicente belonged to nobles of the house of the Marquises de Aguilar de Campoo. However, Unquera as a locality has a very short life historically by European calculations. It did not appear on the map of Coello until(1861), although the '' Unquera Cove '' is mentioned in the Tina Mayor estuary. Unquera may have developed at the end of the 19th century thanks to the improvement of communications, especially by the railroad, and for the commercial boom of the region, possible after the opening of the gorge road (later N-621) in 1863. This road was used as a way to export, through the Unquera inlet, raw materials from Liébana and the La Hermida gorge to England, Belgium and (Germany). In 1881 Unquera is already cited as a village at the bottom of Tina Mayor. Since then Unquera has grown linearly around the road, and also parallel to the estuary, where it has a river walk.

Economy

The food industry stands out for the main industry, represented mainly by the brand '' Pindal '' (others being others such as '' Canal '' and '' Sanbar ''). Canneries in this industry has existed since the 19th century in Unquera and are still maintaining active manufacturing of preserves and pickling.

Transportation

Unquera has the following ground transportation: * Line of

FEVE Renfe Feve is a division of state-owned Spanish railway company Renfe Operadora. It operates most of Spain's of railway. This division of Renfe was previously a stand-alone company named FEVE (Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha,Law 11/1965 of ...

, which links the population with

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

and with

. * Autovía del Cantábrico, one of whose accesses is located next to the town. * Bus lines, among which stands out the line of ALSA

Irún Irun ( es, Irún, eu, Irun) is a town of the Bidasoaldea region in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. History It lies on the foundations of the ancient Oiasso, cited as a Roman- Vasconic town. During the Sp ...

–

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...

, which takes Unquera as one of its stops * Road N-621, which links León and Unquera, the most usual route to access

Potes Potes is a municipality in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Cantabria in Spain. It is the capital of the Comarcas of Spain, Comarca of Liébana and is located in the centre of it. It is bordered to the north by Cillorigo ...

and the only one from the coast Cantabrian. Towns in Spain Municipalities in Cantabria {{Spain-geo-stub