Avilés Region

The Avilés region is a land forged red-hot in those blast furnaces that shaped its landscape and the mettle of its inhabitants. A region of steel, well connected and densely populated that gravitates around the city of Avilés. The whole territory is enveloped in a green and Atlantic landscape, with long horizon beaches and coastal routes that wind between cliffs and villages. In the Trasona reservoir, elite canoeists train with great discipline, but the arrival of the Antroxu is enough to transform everything: the masks take to the streets and the region surrenders, without reserve, to the art of celebration.

Trasona reservoir - Corvera de Asturias.

Born in the heat of overseas trade and the iron of its foundries, the Avilés region grew enormously with labour work, although its history goes back much further. In the ancient fortified castro of Castiellu de Molleda, in Corvera, one of the most unique Roman funerary stelae of its time has been found, now in the Archaeological Museum of Asturias. In the town of Raíces, in Castrillón, the traces of the Castle of Gauzón, the first fortress of the Kingdom of Asturias, remain. The legendary Victoria Cross was forged in its workshops, the emblem of a monarchy that was just beginning its journey.

Parque del Muelle - Avilés.

The old quarter of Avilés, declared a Historic-Artistic Site, reflects the medieval spirit of a town which, after being granted a charter by Alfonso VI, became a leading commercial port. It became the second city of Asturias, growing thanks to guilds of craftsmen, sailors and traders. Ships loaded with iron and salt, Castilian wool and agricultural products sailed from its docks, importing wine and fabrics from other regions of Europe. The city was also the birthplace of great seafarers in the service of the crown. It is known as the "Villa del Adelantado" in honour of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (1519-1574), the "adelantado" navigator who founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in the United States.

Balsera Palace - Avilés.

During the 17th century, medieval Aviles overflowed with the so-called "baroque expansion", whose legacy is still exceptionally preserved in churches, theatres, palaces, balconies and arcades. The Museum of the Urban History of Avilés narrates the evolution of the town in four main stages: the medieval town, the modern town, the bourgeois town and the industrial town.

After the industrialisation of the 19th century, the port of Avilés became a key point for exporting Asturian hard coal. The old medieval salt mines gave way to factories and mining operations. The Arnao mine, just seven kilometres from the city, was the first documented coal mine in Spain, as well as the first underwater mine in Europe; it was also a pioneer in the use of railways, modern extraction techniques and female labour. The first workers' settlement in the country was built around it. Closed in 1915, today it houses a museum that allows you to visit part of its old galleries in a more than surprising visit.

Arnao Mine Museum - Castrillón.

As the 20th century progressed, the iron and steel industry turned Avilés into the "city of steel"; it favoured the development of new neighbourhoods, workshops and schools; it employed around 25,000 people and gave a working-class identity to the whole region. Today, the port of Avilés continues to be a key point for logistics in Asturias. It has a large movement of industrial goods and is the main fishing port of the Principality. In recent years, this whole area has been brought closer to the city, with green areas, promenades, a marina and that great cultural icon that is the Niemeyer Centre, with which the estuary, as well as receiving ships, has opened up to new ideas and to the future.

Designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, it stands as a symbol of the transformation of Avilés: it does not break with its industrial past, but embraces it and projects it into the future. Since its opening in 2011, it has completely changed the city's relationship with the port, which is no longer just a place for work, but also for culture and citizen encounters. Pure white and curved, like a great wave of snow and an enormous igloo, or also like a spaceship landed on our planet, the Niemeyer has stellar spaces: auditorium, exhibition rooms, dome and viewpoint. Concerts, film cycles, conferences and all kinds of cultural expressions are held here, in a continuous and high quality programme(opens in a new tab).

Palacio Valdés Theatre - Avilés.

But the cultural life of the region does not stop at this ultramodern lighthouse. The Palacio Valdés Theatre(opens in a new tab), a jewel of the late 19th century, maintains a stable and high level programme throughout the year in the city of Aviles. In Piedras Blancas, capital of Castrillón, the Valey Cultural Centre(opens in a new tab) spreads out over five thousand square metres so that everything has its place: rooms for plastic exhibitions, new technologies, games library and theatre auditorium for more than 400 people.

The Avilés region is a natural crossroads of rural, industrial and Atlantic Asturias. In Corvera is the Trasona reservoir, which was created to provide water for the steel industry and today is an immense natural space full of birds and riverside trees. It is also a key place for sport. High-level canoeing competitions are held in its waters, and elite paddlers perfect their technique and fitness, training in the reservoir and in the nearby High Performance and Sports Technification Centre(opens in a new tab).

Every May Day, Labour Day, the Jira al Embalse de Trasona (Festival of Tourist Interest of the Principality of Asturias) is held. It began in the 1950s as a pilgrimage organised by the steel workers and is still alive today as a tribute to the working class. In the recreational areas of Overo and Gavitos, hundreds of tablecloths with empanadas, tortillas and bollos preñaos gather, while bagpipes play, people dance and attend a long verbena.

Tour of the Trasona Reservoir - Corvera de Asturias.

Not far from this reservoir, the La Furta wetland is famous for being a passage, breeding and wintering place for numerous ornithological species. It is a Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA), which has its own observatory.

A few kilometres away, the Illas river pool is a unique spot for bathing, with green areas, tables scattered among birch and ash trees, a children's playground and picnic area. All this on both banks of the Sollovio stream that gives its name to the area. There are also several routes from here, such as the one that climbs up to Pico Friera. This is the highest peak in the region and, at a modest 623 metres, guarantees the best view of the city and the Avilés estuary.

For those who prefer cycling to walking, the Ruta de los Molinos is one of the most unique cycle-tourism routes in the Avilés region. The 13 kilometres start in La Caizuela, capital of the council of Illas, where you can see the 16th century Bárcena Palace. From there, the route passes over wooden bridges, paths along the river and the remains of old flour mills. At the end of the route we connect with the Senda del Agua, a more comfortable gravel path that runs alongside the Narcea Canal; an old engineering work built in 1965, which carries water to the Trasona reservoir. This 25-kilometre path can be done by bicycle or on foot, either all at once or in stages. It crosses meadows, forests and villages with a rich ethnographic heritage.

Castrillón is, within the Avilés region, the area most open to the Cantabrian Sea, with a marked seafaring tradition that is reflected in its history and landscape. From the beach of San Juan de Nieva, at the mouth of the estuary, to the beach of Arnao, you can follow a coastal path for about four kilometres to get started on this coastline. Salinas is more than just a beach, it is a way of enjoying the summer in a traditional residential area. Its waters are one of the Asturian meccas for surf lovers. Every July the International Longboard Festival is held here, the oldest in Europe in its speciality. At one end of Salinas beach is the Philippe Cousteau Anchor Museum, in the open air, on the peninsula of La Peñona. It pays homage to the famous French oceanographer with antique anchors, sculptures of the sea and a large sculpture of his profile facing the Bay of Biscay.

We move on to Espartal beach, also popular with surfers and home to one of the best-preserved dune systems in the north of the peninsula, declared a Natural Monument.

Philippe Cousteau Anchor Museum - Castrillón.

Further west, the coastline of Castrillón unfolds a string of beaches ranging from the familiar Santa María del Mar, to the quiet and rugged coves of Bahínas or Munielles. At the westernmost end of the region, the Playón de Bayas, also known as El Sablón, opens up immensely towards the Bay of Biscay. Almost three kilometres long, it is the longest sandy beach in Asturias. Its dunes, shaped by the wind, and the nearby island of La Deva (the largest of the region's coastal islets), are a protected natural area. Furthermore, on the western part of the beach, pets are allowed, which is a great incentive for people who want to enjoy the coast with their pets.

The Avilés region is enviably easy to reach for visitors: crossed by the Cantabrian motorway (A-8) and with Asturias airport(opens in a new tab) (Ranón, Castrillón), just 14 kilometres away. The bus and suburban train network also allows you to move around the area with ease.

The city of Avilés, with its nearly 80,000 inhabitants, is the hub that organises and connects the whole region. Its enviable historic quarter is a lesson in baroque town planning. The arcaded streets of Galiana, Rivero or La Ferrería, the Plaza de España with its town hall and the Ferrera Palace, the churches of San Nicolás de Bari and Sabugo, or the Palacio Valdés Theatre, make up an ensemble that is best enjoyed on foot, without haste and with your eyes wide open. In addition, a good network of green spaces oxygenates and embellishes its urban layout. The Ferrera Park, an old palace garden, is the most stately and central; the Muelle Park connects the historic quarter with the estuary.

Galiana Street - Avilés.

Another magnificent occasion to visit this city is at the end of July, during the Festival Intercélticu d'Avilés y Comarca (Festival of Tourist Interest of the Principality of Asturias). A festive and fraternal meeting of the Celtic universe, which transforms the city into a crossroads of bagpipes, cider and Atlantic memory.

A very hospitable city that we can put to the test on Sunday and Easter Monday, when the Fiesta del Bollo ( declared of Tourist Interest in the Principality of Asturias) is held. The whole city comes together for its famous street food, with hundreds of tables shared outdoors and thousands of diners. On this day, the confectioners' guild sells several tons of the traditional Easter bun: buttered sponge cake with original shapes covered in icing sugar.

Bollo Festival - Avilés.

And if in summer the city celebrates its Atlantic soul, in winter it laughs at itself in one of the most unique carnivals in the Cantabrian Sea. During the Antroxu (a festival of Tourist Interest in the Principality of Asturias), the city abandons its routine to indulge in play, satire and excess, amidst costumes and charangas of all kinds. The Descent of Galiana shines with its own light, where impossible floats "navigate" a sloping street transformed into a river of foam and joy. During these days, the pote de Antroxu ( beans with cabbage, potatoes, chorizo, pork shoulder and black pudding) warms the stomachs and the spirits, while the frixuelos - Asturian crepes - put the sweet finishing touch, sprinkled with sugar or filled with whatever gluttony dictates: chestnut cream, dulce de leche, ice cream?

The Avilés region rightly boasts excellent food and gastronomy. One of the most representative dishes is hake a la avilesina, a seafood recipe that combines clams, mussels, garlic, onion and white wine. In Castrillón, the flavour of summer arrives with grilled tuna or rice in broth by the sea. Rural cuisine is present with dishes such as lamb, wild boar or the endearing pitu de caleya, free-range chicken. Among the most typical products of the region are the longaniza sausage from Avilés, with an intense flavour and great versatility in the kitchen, and the blue cheese from La Peral, unctuous and refined. A dairy product made in Illas that rubs shoulders with the best in Europe.

There is a wide and diverse range of accommodation on offer: from charming hotels in the old quarter of Avilés, to coastal flats in Castrillón, to rural houses in Illas or Corvera, where silence and green freshness are part of the service.

In the Jacobean area, Avilés is an outstanding place. The Way of St. James converges in the city along two routes. On the one hand, the Northern Way, which runs along the coast of the Atlantic coast, linking the fishing villages of the Cantabrian Sea. On the other, the route which, starting from the French Way in the city of León, goes into Asturias to visit the cathedral of Oviedo to visit San Salvador and the relics of the Holy Chamber; from Oviedo the route continues to Avilés to join the coastal route and continue the journey to Santiago de Compostela. Both routes join at the access to the city centre, at the point where the Pilgrims' Hostel is currently located.

This region is well worth a pilgrimage. It does not reveal itself all at once, but welcomes us with an unexpected familiarity, as if it had already known us before. This is how the Irish Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney experienced it in his famous poem "On the Way to Piedras Blancas":

I was a pilgrim who had never been
in that environment,
yet I felt as if I were in my own homeland (...)