Novales

Novales is a small locality in the municipality of Alfoz de Lloredo, in Cantabria, situated in the green valley terrain between Santillana del Mar and Comillas. The village has a quiet pastoral character with stone farmhouses, enclosed meadows, and the mixed woodland typical of the sheltered Cantabrian valleys.

The name may relate to novales, meaning newly cleared or cultivated land, a common agricultural toponym found across northern Spain indicating land brought into cultivation in the medieval period.

For pilgrims on the Camino del Norte, Novales is one of several small villages in the Alfoz de Lloredo valley section providing the gentle pastoral rhythm between the celebrated stages of Santillana and Comillas.