La Loja Cave is located in the village of El Mazo, about 2 kilometres from Panes on the road to Unquera. This is one of the classic stations in Palaeolithic Asturian and Cantabrian art, as it was one of the first to be discovered (1908), being reported soon after (1911), which earned it international recognition.
La Loja Educational Exhibition is located on the esplanade beside the cave entrance, close to the River Cares-Deva. Designed in 1998, and promoted by the Association of Friends of La Loja (1999), it was mostly funded by the Leader II programme for eastern Asturias, opening its doors to the public in 2002. It is a small building with two floors and a large open gallery looking south and a porch below to shelter from the rain.
The building aims to be very simple in design, using local materials and construction techniques: stone, wood, Moorish tiles, clay, etc. The lower floor comprises a mound of riprap to prevent flooding caused by the River Cares-Deva overflowing its banks.
The educational exhibition rooms are housed upstairs. The theme of the exhibition revolves around rock art in the aforementioned cave and the prehistoric riches of the borough. At the same time, it provides some general notions on Archaeology and Prehistory at the Asturian, Northern Spain and European level.
The main objective of this educational exhibition is to introduce visitors to the prehistoric art existing here, especially in La Loja Cave, and to pique their interest and motivate them to learn about other caves with rock art, such as "El Pinal", "Tito Bustillo " and "El Buxu".
A guided tour of the exhibition is provided and, after about 30 minutes, the time it usually takes to tour the entire centre, you then visit La Loja Cave itself (which takes about 10-15 minutes).
