Cider Shire

Cider, in Greek "sikera-". This is what Strabo called it and dreamt of it, whose journey as a geographer led him to learn about Asturian cider and its excellence, describing it as a drink for heroes... From that year 60 B.C. to the present day, several thousand years have passed and the world has undergone great changes. Several thousand years have passed and the world has undergone great changes, but one thing remains certain: Asturian cider is still a drink for the brave, a drink that everyone loves..., and which in Asturias gives its tourist name to a region, the most closely linked to the culture that has revolved around this drink for hundreds of years.

If there is a term that sums up the essence of this region, it is natural, because this is a territory located in the central-eastern part of the region where rural culture and a humanised and cared-for nature prevail, characterised by the presence of forests, mountains, rivers and orchards, places populated by apple trees..., and there is no doubt that one of the great natural spectacles offered by this area is to see the apple blossom, which takes place in spring.

In fact, in the Cider Region you can follow the whole natural and social cycle of this drink, from the moment the apple is born, until it is transformed into cider, after the whole process of elaboration carried out in the cider mill and all the singular sociology that this culture entails, from the "escanciado", the way of decanting the cider from the top to the rim of the glass, to the Asturian "chigre", the music and the songs that are sung in it or the typical gastronomic and recreational festival around the cider known as "espicha". Of course, all this is documented and illustrated in the Cider Museum in Nava, although it can also be enjoyed live and in person in any of the cider houses, restaurants and cider houses in the region. Or at the fiestas and festivals that take place throughout the year, among which the Cider Festival in Nava and theApple Festivalin Villaviciosa are particularly noteworthy. Both events have been declared to be of tourist interest, and include, among other things, cider-pouring championships, another great social spectacle unique in the world that takes place in Asturias.

The land dreamt of by Strabo is a great ecological pantry in its entirety: good market gardens, cheeses, homemade cider, quality beans, good fish and seafood, which also has a coastline, and as a consequence, excellent gastronomy, evident in recipes, menus and in some festivals, including, to give just one example among dozens, the rice pudding festival in Cabranes.

Speaking of the coast, there are some very characteristic and highly televised villages, such as Llastres, whose physiognomy is filmed and photographed incessantly, and where dishes and recipes are tasted with the raw material of the Cantabrian Sea. The same can be said of Tazones, a small romantic port where you can eat excellent seafood, and which also holds the historical record of being the first port where Charles I of Spain disembarked when he was V in Germany, and from Tazones he went to spend the night in Villaviciosa, navigating the largest estuary in Asturias, a true paradise for different species of migratory birds, and therefore also for lovers of ornithology.

If we continue along the coastline, beaches and cliffs of scenic, geological and sporting interest, culminating the itinerary in Colunga, with the Jurassic Museum and the beach of La Griega where dinosaur footprints can be seen at the foot of the coastline.

In the heart of the region, charismatic municipalities such as Bimenes, home to miners and farmers, with its Mills Route, its Casa de Les Radios and its vocation to the Asturian language; Nava, with its llagares, palaces, and the Peñamayor mountain range, where in the early autumn you can enjoy the spectacle of the deer rutting, and Sariego, a welcoming territory through which thousands of pilgrims have passed on their way to Santiago, marvelling at a landscape steeped in history, such as that of the Romanesque church of Sta. María de Narzana...

We cannot leave our journey through the Cider Shire without a special mention of the indelible signs of centuries of history, materialised in the pre-Romanesque and Romanesque temples that dot the towns and villages, including the Conventín de Valdediós, a fine example of this unique art in Asturias.

Not even Strabo himself could have imagined that his Asturian sikera could be so rich!

Six councils make up the Cider Region: Bimenes, Cabranes, Colunga, Nava, Sariego and Villaviciosa... where Asturias smells of apples.