Sanctuary of Covadonga

Its founding origins are linked to the Battle of Covadonga and the beginning of the Asturian Monarchy, which constituted the first Christian Kingdom of the Iberian Peninsula.

Set in an environment of spectacular beauty, the Royal Site of Covadonga is a complex in which the Santa Cueva - where the Virgin is found - and the Basilica stand out, without forgetting the Museum, the headquarters of the Escolanía, the homes of the Canons and the Abbot, or the Gran Hotel Pelayo - more than one hundred years old -.

The Basilica of Santa María la Real de Covadonga was declared as such in September 1901. The temple was designed by the scholar Roberto Frasinelli, popularly known as "the German from Corao", and built between 1877 and 1901 by the architect Federico Aparici y Soriano. Neo-Romanesque in style, it is built entirely of pink limestone. This temple came to replace the old one, destroyed in a fire in 1777, which was adjacent to the Santa Cueva.

Covadonga treasures more than a thousand years of legends and stories linked to Christianity and to the dawn of the construction of a territory, and has become a place of devotion and spirituality for the thousands of pilgrims who visit it every year.

For Asturians it is a spiritual symbol and a sign of identity, to such an extent that Asturias Day is celebrated every year on 8 September, coinciding with the feast of the Virgin of Covadonga.