Nalon Valley

Narrow and steep, green and black - green for Asturian and black for the coal in its bowels, the Nalón Valley, which takes its name from the longest and most historic river in Asturias and which is its watery and vital artery, contains many stories... Social and workers' movement, industrial and technological revolution, mining and iron and steel industry, and also a rural world that stretches from the Puertu (Tarna) towards the central Asturian plateau.

In this world of natural purity, the traveller finds a Biosphere Reserve, the Redes Natural Park, which encompasses the municipalities of Caso and Sobrescobio. In Caso, this purity translates into the genetic authenticity of the Casino cows and the excellence of a cheese, Casín, with P.D.O., as well as a landscape that delights us with the view of the Tiatordos or the Arrudos, or allows us to contemplate the source of La Nalona, where the mythical Nalón is born, which between twists and turns and meanders totals one hundred and forty-five kilometres.

Sobrescobio is the kingdom of capercaillies, hunting, wild fauna, rivers and streams, mountains and valleys. It is an Exemplary Town - an award granted by the Princess of Asturias Foundation -, with a first-class Asturian cuisine and typical villages such as Soto, where the famous Ruta del Alba begins.

Laviana, which owes its name to an ancient Roman road, was placed in the international universe of culture by Armando Palacio Valdés and his novel 'La Aldea Perdida', and today in his native village, Entrialgo, you can see the house where he was born, very close to the historic bridge of La Chalana, which is the inspiration for the song 'Chalaneru', one of the Asturian 'hymns' together with Asturias Patria Querida.

The cultural facilities linked to mining and industrial activity are mainly located in San Martín del Rey Aurelio and Langreo. The Museum of Mining and Industry is in L' Entregu/El Entrego, very close to the historic San Vicente shaft, the first and only one in history to be self-managed by a mining union. In the midst of mining shafts and shafts, stands the Protected Landscape of the Mining Basins or the Nalón River Path, which provide a green counterpoint to so much industrial archaeology and a past of iron, coal and steel.

Langreo, which for a long time gave its name to the whole valley and which is a more urban area, has a glorious intellectual and professional past, not in vain was it declared, in the sixties of the last century, European Kilometre of Culture. Nowadays it is reinventing itself as a tourist and leisure area, and in this area one of its most successful facilities is the Ecomuseum of the Samuño Valley, which has been a real boom for industrial tourism since its inauguration, without forgetting the Iron and Steel Museum, which is already a classic for travellers with this type of interest.

Five councils make up the Nalón Valley Region: Caso, Langreo, Laviana, San Martín del Rey Aurelio and Sobrescobio.