In 1934, a group of intellectuals, scholars, officials, scientists and scholars They met at the Menéndez Pelayo Library, from Santander, to create the generating board of the Center for Montañeses Studies; the institution would be born shortly after, the same year 1934. The early arrival of the military uprising that began the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) did not allow very fruitful activity in the young organization, resuming this after the conclusion of the war conflict.
In the first years of the Spanish postwar, given the exhaustive screening of people not adept at the Regime and the ironclad administrative apparatus of Censorship and Propaganda established by the national, There were no social or political conditions that allowed cultural or scientific manifestations outside of those imposed by the officialdom emanating from the war victory., that in practice, left a considerable sector of the citizenry without civil rights. Despite such difficult circumstances, The cultural work supported by the Center for Montañeses Studies in the post-war period was relevant and its achievements in the conservation of the cultural heritage of Cantabria can be described as memorable..
The Center for Mountain Studies assumed a preeminent role in the development, design and supervision of a broad set of activities related to History, the culture and heritage, among them the archaeological, and its propaganda implications, tourist and economic, also acting as a direct advisory entity to the Presidency of the Provincial Council. It was formed in those years by the nuclear group formed by Tomás Maza Solano, Fernando Barreda, Fermin de Sojo y Lomba…, a whole team of illustrious workers in regional history and some learned officials from the Provincial Council and the Santander City Council.
The weekly frequency with which, starting in March 1940 work sessions take place, collected in the books of Minutes of the Mountain Studies Center, allows us to see the birth and evolution of projects and processes related to culture and heritage.
These circumstances give a special historiographical highlight to the minutes of the Center for Montañeses Studies to explain administrative processes and personal roles in the creation of institutions., authorization of historical facilities or studies, archaeological and cultural, sometimes broken down into their pages with minimal nuances, since the year 1939 until the beginning of the decade of 1950.
It has not been possible to locate the first Book of Minutes corresponding to the years between 1934, year of creation of the Center for Montañeses Studies and the end of the Civil War in 1939, book perhaps definitively lost.
They are preserved, however, the other three volumes, spanning the second from the 11 of August of 1939 until the 28 December 1946; The third book covers the period of 4 January 1947 a 28 April 1951; of 4 November 1971 a 2 December 1985, already in the middle of the period of democracy. The fourth book, covers from this date until the beginning of the years 90. From the conclusion of this last volume, the minutes were no longer included in a book., being collected in loose documents.
The C.E.M developed and focused a series of projects that we see advanced or concluded, after half a century of additional work. We can mention its important role in museographic developments, among the main, the launch of the Museum of Prehistory, the decantation of a Municipal Museum with a nineteenth-century vocation as a multidisciplinary office towards Fine arts, the creation of what would finally be the Ethnographic Museum of Cantabria, that of the Museum of the Sea, embryo of the current Maritime Museum, the generation of Provincial Historical Archive, the global study of heraldry and mountain architecture, the collection and realization of photographic collections systematics on heritage, among which stands out the so-called “Mountain Art Archive”, etc. A considerable part of the lines of work listed have been maintained to the present., projecting into the future the meritorious spirit brought together by the founders in the now distant year 1934.
CEM APPOINTMENTS AND DISTINCTIONS
-Es Official Chronicler of the Province (today region) from Cantabria from the 11 of December 1934, by agreement of the Provincial Council of Santander, currently transformed into the Government of Cantabria.
-Es member of the Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) from the 6 of May 1946, integrating between that date and December 1977 in the extinct Patronato José Mª Quadrado.
-He was awarded by the Board of Trustees of Virgin of Carmen Award in 16 of July 1948.
-Es dean member and founder of the Cultural Institution of Cantabria, constituted in 31 of October 1967 and disappeared in 2012.
-Es founding member of the Spanish Confederation of Local Studies Centers (CECEL), created in 28 of April 1981.
-Es Consultative Institution for the History and Heritage of Cantabria by agreement of the Governing Council of the Regional Council of 29 of August of 1990, It is mandatory to request their report before the initiation of “Inventoried Assets”, “Assets of Local Interest” (WAS), “Assets of Cultural Interest” (BIC), “Monumental Complexes” y “Protection Areas” of said heritage elements.
-Es Honorary Member of the Casa de Cantabria in Madrid from the 20 of May 1994.
-Es Heraldic Advisor or King of Arms of the City Councils of the Region by resolution of the Governing Council of the Regional Council of 2 of March 1995, having developed the flags and coats of arms of most of the municipalities of Cantabria.
-Es Member of the Senate of Honorary Professors of the José Luis Hidalgo de Torrelavega Public School from the 6 of February 2009.
-received the Tourist Lighthouse Award from the Professional Association of Official Tourism Guides of Cantabria he 22 of March 2013.
-received the Medal of Honor of the Brotherhood of the Virgin of the Sea he 25 of May 2015.
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The entity is legally framed in the Organic Law 1/2002 of 22 of March regulating the Right of Association, Royal Decree 1388/1996 of 7 June, on transfer in matters of Associations to the Autonomous Community of Cantabria and Decree 73/1997, of 7 July, by which the Registry of Associations of Cantabria.
Its operation is governed by the statutory provisions approved at the General Meeting on 25 April of the year 2017 and for the additional regulations of the internal regime.
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