Overview
- Faro Santander was inaugurated on Monday, September 7, 2026, in a ceremony attended by King Felipe VI and bank president Ana Patricia Botín.
- The project repurposes the historic Edificio Pereda into more than 10,000 square metres of exhibition and cultural space after a multi-year remodel led by architect David Chipperfield.
- The centre opens with the Banco Santander Collection and the Gelman Collection from Mexico and features a Leonora Carrington exhibition that includes a 1940 painting recovered from family storage in Chicago.
- Royal security teams carried out tight procedures before the ceremony, including evacuating workers for final inspections and checking sewers, while hundreds of residents and journalists gathered outside.
- Local officials and attendees call the opening a transformative step for Santander’s economy and tourism and say the centre will deepen the city’s cultural cluster alongside Centro Botín, with MUPAC and the Archivo Lafuente due to open in the coming months.