Autumn in Asturias in 15 heart-stopping scenes

Autumn is the season of sensations in Asturias. It has everything: light, sound, colours, flavours, sun, rain, wind... And a nature in constant boiling and transformation to give you the best fruits of the earth and to give you the best moments before the end of the year. The Asturian autumn is overflowing with colour, as you can see in the photo of Brañagallones (Caso) which is the cover of our post.

Autumn is a time of warmth by the fireside or by the llar. Time for slow-cooked meals. Time for chestnuts, sweet cider, stuffed onions and peppers, turnips, stew... Spoon dishes that invigorate body and soul. Of feasts around good food, esfoyón, amagüestu, and home-made sweets and liqueurs.

Asturian autumn is warm, welcoming, loving, artisanal. It is a pure exaltation of friendship, of family gatherings, of pleasant getaways, of communion with nature.

For all these reasons, we have 15 autumn scenes for you to come back to Asturias, or simply not to leave, and enjoy this sensational season to the full.

The forest and Asturian mythology are intrinsically linked. And the Asturian forest in autumn, with its colours, its light, the trees with their fallen leaves, and the wind that pushes them and makes them fly in circles, will stain your retina with moments to dream of the trasgu, the busgosu, the cuélebre or the nuberu.

Forests are perfect for a quiet walk or a route, to enjoy the silence, a picnic, or an entertaining conversation. To enjoy alone or in company, and of course, to enjoy a family moment, composing a fairytale scene in a mythological forest...

With the arrival of autumn, the orchards are bursting and the apples hanging from the trees, with their bright colours and smells, are ready to start their journey to become rich juice, either in the form of sweet cider or cider from the duernu, or natural cider.

A walk through the orchards, and if it is guided, all the better, will be an immersion in one of the autumnal essences par excellence of Asturias: apples, cider and cider.

In Asturias the love of art will invade you all year round, but the autumn light is perfect for contemplating (and photographing) the architecture, both civil and religious, that you find in this land.

And the supreme architecture of Asturian art is the Pre-Romanesque, which, with its churches and palaces, sets a unique note of landscape, heritage and historical distinction. A brilliant example to enjoy this artistic contemplation is the church of San Miguel de Lillo, on Mount Naranco, in the surroundings of Oviedo/Uviéu.

The cliffs of the Asturian coast are striking, both for their varied shapes and for their sheer size and vertical walls, which look like cathedrals floating on the sea.

The coastline is home to authentic natural monuments that will impress you at any time of the day. However, the sunsets and sunrises, with their special luminosity, give the coast an atmosphere of infinite romanticism.

The cliffs of Tomasón, between Ribadesella and Llanes, are just one example.

There are thousands of footpaths and trails, paths and canals in Asturias. They are all different. They all have their charm. They will all lead you to idyllic, unsuspected places.

The Asturian autumn, both for the weather conditions and for the peacefulness of the time, is perfect for walking and discovering new trails, which you will feel full of magic.

An ideal example of this is the Beyu Pen path, where different mythological beings are represented, and which takes you to one of the most beautiful and unique villages in the council of Amieva, in the east of Asturias. By the way, if you go with children, they will have a great time.

Chestnuts are one of the most emblematic fruits and fruits of the Asturian autumn, whose forests produce an infinite number of varieties. You will be pleased to see that Asturians eat chestnuts in a thousand different ways: roasted, boiled, in a pot dish, in the form of jam, in syrup, etc.

And the love for chestnuts is very characteristic and defining of these Cantabrian inhabitants (including the brown bears). So one of the most typical and appreciated autumn activities is going to the chestnut "gueta" (gathering).

In this case the picture is worth more than a thousand words, and will serve as proof that by going to the "gueta", you can enjoy yourself like a child...

There are few museums as imaginative and with such beautiful and unique surroundings as the Jurassic Museum of Asturias (MUJA), in Colunga. A spectacular green area with life-size replicas of dinosaurs, which are so real that they seem to move between the gardens and the forest, as if they were alive, and which welcome you with great hospitality...

In addition, there is an open-air recreational area, a catering area with incredible panoramic views of the coast, and of course, a museum with entertaining, educational and scientifically rigorous content.

And autumn is the perfect time to visit such an attractive museum!

The Atlantic Botanical Garden, in Gijón/Xixón, is a place where you can experience the sensation of being in one of the most complete spaces in Europe. What's more, it "changes its costume" and changes its appearance every season, making it a living, constantly evolving place with a great capacity to surprise you.

In autumn, this garden is transformed in some of its areas into a spectacular forest, with all the ingredients of this season: the fall of the deciduous leaves, the chestnut hedgehogs "decorating" the ground, the mushrooms with their exotic appearance coming to the fore?

A real garden of delights with an unforgettable ecosystem!

In the autumn season, there are many rich and tasty recipes that invigorate both body and soul from the rigours of the season as we head into winter.

Asturias is a true paradise for spoon dishes, where you can choose according to your preferences. But, without a doubt, one of the classics and most popular is the pote (stew), which is prepared magnificently all over Asturias.

As it is autumn, a more than appropriate variation of the typical stew (usually with cabbage) is chestnut stew (which is finger-licking good).

Autumn is an ideal season for pleasant routes and walks, where you will find a friendly nature, drawn in pleasant landscapes, and where from time to time history and the past will come to you in the form of ethnography, legend, or architecture.

Often in towns and villages, you will see the signs of identity that define them, including some fine examples of the stately and noble past that can be seen in rural Asturias. This is the case, for example, of the Palace of Mon, in San Martín de Oscos, an exponent of Asturian Baroque at its most splendid, whose main façade has a balcony and coat of arms (simply spectacular).

It is also located in the heart of the Mon Route and surrounded by a magical, leafy chestnut forest.

In the west of Asturias, in a place called Mazonovo (in the council of Taramundi), there is a Windmill Museum, unique in Spain, where more than twenty hydraulic devices are exhibited and in operation, in a setting of serene beauty, where you will be accompanied by the murmur of the river, the sound of the mills and the singing of the birds.

It really is an ideal way to experience autumn!

The little inhabitants of the forest or the park will give you a lot of satisfaction. In Asturias, all towns and cities have plenty of green areas, where you can also enjoy the magic and romanticism of autumn with a more urban feel.

And in the midst of your urban moments, a squirrel may appear before your eyes, with its sweet and elusive manners, which will undoubtedly delight young and old alike.

If you think that the beach is only for the spring-summer season, you don't know Asturias. Because here the beach is a space that is experienced all year round, albeit in different ways. In spring and summer, you can bathe in the sun and the ocean, and in autumn and winter, you can stroll as you please, alone or in company, with or without pets, on foot or by bike, with a feeling of exclusivity and total freedom.

You can also find scenes as colourful and full of life as this one at Gueirúa Beach (Cudillero).

One of the great attractions of Asturian autumn is the nuances that the light takes on at different times of the day. Whether at dawn, midday or dusk, the light shapes the landscape in a different way, sometimes mysterious, sometimes poetic, and always pleasant.

The clouds, the sun, the mist, the rain, the rainbow, the seas of clouds... Everything makes the landscapes an incredible natural spectacle, where the colours of the countryside, the forest or the villages acquire a brightness and luminosity that makes them unique, as in this image taken in Santa Eulalia de Oscos.

It's time to fight the summer excesses and regain calm. It is time to walk through beautiful landscapes, to share silence, or to attend authentic nature concerts. It's time for seasonal sports. And also capturing scenes to immortalise unique moments. Not forgetting good food, of course.

Autumn gives you the opportunity to discover or return to dream villages, full of charm, which are the starting point and also the end point of emblematic routes. One example: Soto de Agues (Sobrescobio) and the Ruta del Alba, in the Redes Nature Reserve.

Come and experience autumn in Asturias and its different scenes! And if you liked this post, share it on your facebook!