The multiproxy study (sedimentology, geochemistry and diatoms) of sediment cores from Sanabria Lake (42°07'30'' N, 06°43'00'' W, 1000 m a.s.l.) together with a robust 14 C chronology provides the first high-resolution and continuous sedimentary record in the region, extending back the last 26 ka. The development of a proglacial lake before 26 cal ka BP demonstrates the onset of deglaciation before the global Last Glacial Maximum, similarly to other alpine glaciers in southern European mountains. Rapid deglaciation occurred at the beginning of the Greenland Interstadial GI-1e (Bølling, 14.6 cal ka BP). Following a short-1 lived episode of glacier re-advance (14.4-14.2 cal ka BP, GI-1d), a climatic improvement at 13.9 cal ka BP suggests the glaciers retreated from the lake basin during the GI-1c. Another glacier reactivation phase occurred between ca. 13.0-12.4 ka, starting earlier than the onset of GS-1 (Younger Dryas). Rapid deglaciation during the Early Holocene (11.7 to 10.1 cal ka BP) was followed by a period of higher river discharge (10.1 to 8.2 cal ka BP). After 8.2 ka, the Holocene is characterized by a general decreasing trend in humidity, punctuated by the driest phase during the Mid Holocene (ca. 6.8-4.8), a wetter interval between 4.8 and 3.3 cal ka BP, and a relatively decline of rainfall since then till present, with a minor increase in humidity during some phases (ca 1670-1760) of the Little Ice Age. Discrete silt layers intercalated in the organic-rich Holocene deposits reflect large flooding

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