10 fairytale villages in Asturias

There are many fairytale-like towns and villages in Asturias, so many that they could and do inspire fantastic stories that combine reality and dreams in the most wonderful way. Perched on a hill, at the bottom of a valley, next to a river or a reservoir, with views of the sea and the mountains at the same time, at the foot of high peaks, populated by dozens of granaries and granaries, or bathed by the intense and immense waves of the Bay of Biscay...

They are villages that form and shape that inspirational Asturias, the same one that invites us to live sweetly and fully the sensations of the landscape and the people, the one that makes us a little bit artists and a little bit bohemian, the one that turns us into explorers of time and space.

Today we take you through a brief but varied selection of 10 fairytale villages in Asturias! Get inspired and dream!

Once upon a time there was a village that adapted its physiognomy and its life to a reservoir, without losing any of its original essence and beauty. Once upon a time there was a village that gave its name to a reservoir, and the reservoir gave water and life to the whole of central Asturias. A village that preserves all its charm intact and its name is Tañes, and it is in the Redes Natural Park.

Tañes is in the council of Caso, in the central-eastern part of Asturias, and forms part of the Redes Biosphere Reserve. In addition to its natural habitat, it has all the serenity of its surroundings and the peacefulness of its people.

Wild fauna, cheeses, native flora, the strength of its reservoir and the murmur of the Nalón make Tañes a place of legend and fairytale, and as could not be less in this magical corner, its collegiate church of Santa María la Real is located on the outskirts of the village, as if perched above the reservoir, silhouetted in all its Renaissance beauty above the waters that are a mirror of all the greenery of Tañes.

Sometimes stories in Asturias are written in black and green, in the colour of coal and forests, and there are fairytale villages in the mining heart of the Central Mountain of Asturias. One example is Vil.lar, in the council of Mieres.

Surrounded by mountains, this authentic village, where rural life seems to have come to a standstill, has a setting of great scenic and geological value, and in the surrounding area you can follow routes where you can track down old coal and mercury mines.

Furthermore, the surrounding heights are exceptional viewpoints over the Sierra del Aramo, the Las Ubiñas-La Mesa Nature Reserve, the Pajares area and the Cordal de La Carisa mountain range, part of the Redes Nature Reserve and also, on very clear days, part of the Picos de Europa National Park.

Between valleys and mountains, in the centre of Asturias and almost as if by magic, the Middle Ages come to meet you in the village of Banduxu, one of the best preserved places of medieval origin in the whole of rural Asturias.

A lot of history and many people passing through have seen its stones and walls, its Tower of Tuñón or the church of Santa María. Incessant activity for centuries, and suddenly silence, eternal tranquillity and total peace.

Banduxu, in Proaza, seems today to be asleep in a never-ending medieval dream. And that sensation will be all over you when you arrive at the village and look at it from near or far. Against an enormous green backdrop, this village, unique in Asturias, shines its historical trail from the total stillness.

In the midst of the land of the hydraulic mills, of fire and iron, of the greenest paths and the waterfall with the greatest fall in Asturias, the village of Pumares, in Santa Eulalia de Oscos, one of the councils that form part of Los Oscos, will suddenly appear to you, as if it were taken from a fantastic set.

Pumares is like a dream in stone, black slate and water. It is a corner where the river sounds with a sweet whisper, and where you will start the way to the famous and almighty Seimeira waterfall.

You will get to know the land of the ironworkers and the forests, of the mills, mallets and fulling mills, of the iron craftsmen, in the middle of a multicoloured and peaceful nature.

There was once a village in Tineo through which all the gold of western Asturias passed, which the Romans extracted from the Asturian bowels to sustain one of the greatest empires known to Antiquity.

There was once a town in Tineo that gave to Humanity and to history fighters for social liberties in a resounding way, such as General Riego.

Everything in Tuña today seems to be impregnated with the spirit of Riego, and you can still see the house where he was born, as well as a bust and some mural paintings that honour his memory.

Tuña will take you back in time, with its Roman bridge and its palaces, its quietness and its friendly people.

Wind and saltpetre, waves and foam, a breakwater and a lighthouse, a small port that looks like something out of a fairy tale. It is El Porto/Viávelez, one of the most hidden and surprising places on the western coast of Asturias, and it is in the council of El Franco.

A refuge for fishermen and sailors, sea lovers, writers and artists, lovers of good seafood, strollers and travellers, pilgrims, El Porto/Viavélez is a true gift of nature.

Both when the sea is calm and when it is rough, the appearance of El Porto/Viavélez is a spectacle.

What an enormous privilege it is to reach Riodeporcos! There, where the Navia makes a kind of meander and its sheet of water glistens in the sun, Riodeporcos emerges, as if it were a divine creation.

The footbridge that links this village in Ibias with the rest of the world is an ancient and romantic way of accessing the village, which, take note, you will not reach by car.

Far from the hustle and bustle and surrounded by nature, in Riodeporcos any stress will seem like an urban legend.

Can you imagine a place that was a real kingdom of granaries? That place is not just in your imagination, it really exists. It is in Asturias and it is a village called Espinaréu, in Piloña.

When you arrive at Espinaréu you will be impressed not only by the profusion of hórreos and paneras, but also because they look shiny and have survived to the present day, preserving the uses of yesteryear, closely linked to the world of crops, and therefore to human survival.

Espinaréu is a welcoming village, crossed by the waters of the river of the same name, where the hórreos take on a life of their own with their varied decorations and carvings, some of them polychrome. It is like travelling to an ethnographic paradise where the mark of time is intense and extensive.

To get there you will have to go through a high mountain channel or, if you prefer, by a "rack railway". When you disembark at an altitude of a thousand metres, in the midst of peaks that literally embrace you, the surprise is enormous and the sensation is that of having crossed a frontier.

The border that thousands of mountaineers and climbers have crossed during more than a century of exploration, adventure and effort. The frontier that hundreds of inhabitants of the Picos have crossed all their lives in a supreme exercise of survival in the natural environment.

It is Bulnes, in the heart of the Central Massif of the Picos de Europa, in the council of Cabrales. There you will discover an idyllic landscape, a unique cheese such as Cabrales, an upper district with panoramic views, and a way of life that is languishing, of whose harshness in the past the austere cemetery (formerly roofed) at the entrance of the village is a living testimony...

And what about looking out to sea from a Pre-Romanesque church? Gobiendes gives you that experience from its Pre-Romanesque church of Santiago. Perched on a promontory above the coast, Gobiendes overlooks the Bay of Biscay on one side and Mount Sueve on the other, the first mountain that sailors see on their approach to the Asturian coast.

With its palace and its well-kept houses, Gobiendes, in the council of Colunga, is a haven of peace, where you will feel the sea breeze and the mountain wind in a unique combination.

And what's more, you'll be right in the middle of the Camino de Santiago de la Costa, the oldest route that exists before reaching the Cathedral of El Salvador!