Casa de juntas de Puente San Miguel

The meeting house of Puente San Miguel, also known as the meeting house of the Nine Valleys, is a small building located in Puente San Miguel (Cantabria, Spain). It is best known for hosting, on 28 July 1778, the assembly of deputies of the Province of the Nine Valleys of the Asturias of Santillana who met there to create the Province of Cantabria, the first modern and fully structured provincial administrative system in the territory that today forms the autonomous community of Cantabria. Before this date, the building served as the meeting place for the deputies of the Nine Valleys. The principal function of the assembly, similar to those of Asturias and the Basque provinces, was to defend provincial interests from royal authority, with special regard for local fueros, customs, privileges, freedoms, franchises, and jurisdictional, governmental, fiscal, and military matters. In 1801, as a result of the territorial policies of Charles IV, the Puente San Miguel assembly and the Province of Cantabria ceased to exist. The Maritime province of Santander was then created by royal decree and made official in 1815. Meetings in the assembly house ended in 1824; the building was later auctioned and demolished. In 1994, it was faithfully reconstructed as a symbol of the origins of modern Cantabria.