Away from the traditional tourist routes and breaking with stereotypic images of Spain. Populated since prehistoric times, influenced by Celtic and Roman culture, and protected  by the Cantabrian Mountains, Asturies remained a haven for much of Iberian culture for centuries, developing the unique Asturian (Pre-Romanesque) architectural style that crystallized the values of the emerging Christian society much earlier than in the rest of Europe.

Asturies is located in the far Northwest of the Iberian peninsula, has an area of 10,565 km²: From a imaginary triangle, the northern side would be the Bay of Biscay, running along parallel 43º 36'.

The climate is Atlantic with mild temperatures and abundant rainfall all year round which favours the existence of varied and rich vegetation (such as the Oakwood of Muniellos and the Natural Park of Cuadonga). 

According to orography Asturies can be split in three areas: Mountain, mainly near the southern borderline, inner valleys and plains, and the coastal fringe. 

A stunning coastline with high cliffs and sandy bays gives you a choice of rocky cove or sandy beach, fishing port -Llanes, Tazones, Cuideiru, or resort Ribeseya.

Explore the magnificent Los Picos d'Europa, among the most rugged and dramatic mountains in Europe -walk the Cares Gorge, take the twisty drive to the little lakes of L'Arcina and Enol, strike out for the El Picu Urriellu, eat the green cheeses of Cabrales.

Discover Asturies' rich cultural heritage, Cuadonga, the mountain pilgrimage centre where Asturians claim the birth of their country took place, Uvieo with its Gothic cathedral and Pre-Romanesque churches, the prehistoric caves of El Pozu'l Ramu, the museum of "Indianos" in Colombres...

Enjoy local markets, little restaurants, seaside restaurants and cafés; eat seafood, bean stews (fabada), try the local cider and admire the way your barman pours it into the glass.

Uvieo, home to over 200,000 inhabitants, is the administrative, commercial and cultural centre of Asturies. Just 21 miles from the coast, Uvieo is the gateway to great scenery, skiing, and beaches. It is also a "university town," as it has been for nearly four centuries, home to the University of Uvieo, with over 45,000 students and 1,600 faculty members.

The city of Uvieo is situated in central Asturies at the foot of Mount El Naranco combining a prosperous urban area with monumental heritage witness of a ast rich in history. The city was founded by King Fruela I (756-68). In AD 760 Abbot Fromistanus and his nephew Maximus built a monastery there and dedicated a church to St. Vincent; Fruela had houses built and the basilica of S. Salvador. His son, King Alfonso II, the Chaste, made Uvieo his capital and restored the Church of St. Salvador. A number of bishops, expelled from their sees by the Saracens, were gathered at the city, where they held two councils.

The Cathedral of St. Salvador was restored in the twelfth century by Archbishop Don Pelayo, the chronicler. Bishop Fernando Alfonso (1296-1301) undertook another restoration of the chapter-house, and his successor, Fernando Alvarez (1302-1321), began the cloister. At the end of the thirteenth century Gutierre de Toledo began the new Gothic basilica, the principal chapel bearing his arms, although it was completed by his successor Guillén. Diego Ramirez de Guzmán (1421-1441) built the two chapels of the south transept (now replaced by the sacristy), the old entrance to the church, and the gallery of the cloister adjoining the chapter-house. Alonzo de Palenzuela (1470-1485) completed the other part of the transept. Juan Arias (1487-1497) left his cognizance, the fleur-de-lys and four scallops, on the nave. Juan Daza (1497-1503) erected the grille of the choir; Valerano (1508-12) added the stained-glass windows. Diego de Muros, had the crestings of the porch wrought by Pedro de Bruyeres and Xuan de Cerecedo Senior, while Giralte and Balmaseda completed the carving of the precious altarpiece in the time of Francisco de Mendoza (1525-1528). Cristóbal de Rojas (1546-56) affixed his coat-of-arms to the completed tower, with its octagonal pyramid, one of the marvels of Gothic architecture. The chief feature of the cathedral is the "Camara Santa", with its venerable relics. Bishop Don Pelayo relates that a coffer made by the disciples of the Apostles, and containing the most precious relics of the Holy City, was taken from Jerusalem to Africa, and after several translations was finally deposited at Uvieo by King Alfonso II.

Where wild habitat remains in the mountains, it is dominated by oak groves growing alongside ash, beech, birch, hazel, pine, and holly trees. El Monte Muniel.los is the most important wood not only in Spain but in the whole Atlantic world of Western Europe.

Inside in it you can easily imagine the shadows of druids and fauns. It covers 2,695 Hectares in total.

The humidity level is very high due to the abundant rain and ever-present mist. The oak is the king of this wood, although we can also find beechtrees, heaths, holly trees and, where trees are scarce, ferns. The climate is influenced by the ecoregion’s proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, which creates many diverse habitats.

In this is well preserved forest, little evidence of human presence is visible. At the bottom of bigger valleys, according to legend, there are as many of these as days in a year

"Little evidence of human activity is visible"

Although trees dominate the landscape, over 400 species of vascular plants are present in the Reserve, some included in the Catalogue of Threatened Species from the Flora of Asturies.

Fungi, mosses and mainly lichens show great diversity. The endemism Ranunculus parnassifolius ssp. muniellensis and algae from Batrachospermun genus are exclusively found at Muniellos.

The fauna (bears, otters, wildcats, martens, squirrels, capercailles…) finds here a protected space.

Xixón

Xixón is set in the middle of the Asturian coast, it is the largest city in Asturies with nearly 300,000 inhabitants and is called the capital of the Costa Verde (Green Coast). This easy going  city was completely rebuilt after its destruction in the Spanish Civil War. Nowadays is the main tourist centre, but it is also an industrial city, with industrial and leisure ports, beaches, an intense cultural life and important museums as well. Its origins date back in antiquity due to its privileged situation by the coast overviewed from La Talaya, this ideal peninsula was protected by a wall -currently under archaeological investigation-, but little is known of its history before the Romans.

Once passed the industrial outskirts, the city has quite a breezy, open feel about it, with a grid of streets backing onto the sands of Playa de San Llorienzo, a surprisingly unpolluted beach.

The old part of town, Cimavilla, occupies a headland west of the beach- a visit can begin from Xove-Llanos square where the Palace of Valdés (17th Century) is placed over the Roman bath (1st century). In the same plaza the Museum of Xove-Llanos (16th century), subsequently restored, containing personal memorabilia, paintings and sculptures. Adjacent to the building Los Remedios chapel. In the plaza of Remedies, the House of the Nava family (17th century).

Descending from Oscar Olavarría Street we come out of Cimavilla arriving to the Marina. The Palace of Revilla-Gigedo (today the Centre International of Arts) dates from the 18th century and was recently restored (built in an splendid mix of neo-Baroque and neo-Renaissance styles). Leaned to the palace, the Church of Saint John the Baptist "La Colexata" whose construction finalised in 1702. A statue of King Pelayo can be seen in the plaza. Nearby, the Barjola Museum of Contemporary Art finds accommodation in the Palace and Chapel of the Trinity (17th century).

To complete the cultural walk, a visit to the remaining museums of Xixón: Ethnographic Museum of Asturies enclosed in the Ferial Ground, next to the Bagpipe Museum and finally the Evaristo Valle Museum situated in Somió surrounded by splendid gardens.

These and more make a visit to Xixón an unforgettable remembrance that invites to return..

Mountains start by El Puertu Tarna, where the river Nalón is born, going eastwards through El Puirtu Braña and El Puerto Payares, to end by L'Altu Ventana and Sumiedu, where a Natural Park was established in 1988, covering the south border of Asturies.

Three distinctive but not exlusive elements appear in this this privileged area: lakes, pallozas (thatched houses) and some bears.

Although Los Picos are not the highest mountains in Spain, they are the favourite of many walkers, trekkers and climbers. The range is a miniature master-piece: a mere forty kilometres across in either direction, shoehorned in between three great river gorges, and straddling between Asturies, Cantabria and León. For Asturians this is a symbol of their national identity.

Here lies the most spectacular area of mountains in Asturias, the Los Picos d'Europa,  at only 20 km from the coast. National Park since 1995, they are a privileged place where visitors can find the best conditions for the practice of active tourism.

It is a mass of towers, h.oos, channels, rocks, and chasms (models by glaciers, sudden thaws, rushing torrents and rivers), that rose from the sea during the period of big ferns and dark marshes: the Carboniferous Period.

The water, in the form of glaciers during the last huge glaciation and today, as snow, ice, rain or fountains, has been sculpting the rock and creating under the summits a whole range of unusual scarfs; canales, h.orcaos, llambrias, neveros, h.oos, torcas...

The East face of the El Picu Urriellu, is a 300 m wall (1000 ft.) in the heart of Los Picos, providing an emblematic symbol for Asturians.

Walks in the Los Picos d'Europa area amazingly diverse, considering the size of the region, and they include trails for all levels of activity -from a casual morning walk to two-and-three-day treks.-

It was more of a sense of something large and boulder-shaped on the edge of a tract of Pyrenean oak… and on the edge of my vision.  It lasted a split-second and the more I think about it, the more I think it could have been my imagination - or wishful thinking.  I continued to sit, with the sun burning off the last vestige of early morning haze, and strained my eyes and ears for confirmation of a large carnivore in the vicinity.  But the only movement to catch my eye was that of a myriad of jewel-coloured butterflies rippling across the meadow and the only sound was that of sublime silence.

In Los Picos d'Europa in northern Spain, you can find true wilderness. Small and compact this little tangle of limestone peaks may be - a scaled down version of the Alps - but Los Picos are more than a match in grandeur and scenic drama.  They help to make up the Cordalera Cantábrica, a mountain range which extends right across the north of the country from the Pyrenees, almost to Portugal, contributing to the reason why Spain is the second-most mountainous country in Europe, next to Switzerland.

The limestone massif of the Los Picos is bisected with spectacular gorges and steep-sided valleys and clothed in forests of oak, evergreen, ash, lime and beech.  Wonderfully rich hay meadows, untouched by pesticides and fertilizers and mostly cut by hand, claim status of the richest in Europe and provide a spectacular floral display in spring - as it was on this day.  It is in spring that the Spanish brown bear emerges from a winter torpor to feed in meadows such as this, digging up roots and tubers to built up fat reserves diminished by lack of food and (in the case of females) much suckling!

Brown bears were once widespread throughout the Iberian Peninsular but now their only stronghold lies in two widely separated nuclei in the Cordalera Cantábrica:  from the Asturian side (National Hunting Reserves of Sumiedu and Degaña and the Integral Biological Reserve of Muniellos), and the mountains of León, Palencia and Cantabria.

The Asturian population is the strongest, comprising three-quarters of the total number of Spanish bears with between 120 and 164 individuals, but with numbers dropping all the time.  In fact, environmental groups fear their numbers fail to exceed eighty individuals!

Fauna and flora

Although the brown bear (Ursus arctos) has been legally protected since 1973, it faces continual threats from trophy hunters and angry farmers despite that fact that these farmers are compensated by the government and conservation societies for any livestock lost to rogue bears.

A secondary threat to the Spanish bear comes with its willingness to eat carrion.  Many have died when they have been attracted to poisoned carcasses largely intended for wolves. And so to the beleaguered Iberian wolf (Canis lupus), a creature the farmers have no difficulty seeing but which tourists and conservationists rarely do!  And, yet again, it is the farmers who don’t want them there and do their utmost to wipe the population out.

The Iberian wolf exists in small populations scattered around the peninsula: here in the Los Picos, Galicia and León, along the Spanish-Portuguese border, around Estremadura and also in the Sierra Morena in northern Andalusia.  Numbers are rather more healthy than that of the bear at 1500 individuals but, although the wolf is fully protected in Portugal, it is classed as a game animal throughout Spain. 

Although this category allows some protection, local administrations handle nature conservation on an individual basis and any ‘protection’ afforded is very liberal!  However, I was pleased to learn that Andalusia offers complete protection for its wolves where they occupy uninhabited tracts of natural habitat and feed on red deer, but throughout the rest of the country wolves are shot and poisoned.

Razor crags cut into the skyline hiding waterfalls and lakes, arrets, screes, plummeting cliffs with tiny red-roofed hamlets snuggled in the foothills where little patchwork goats graze alongside wild Asturian horses (or asturcones).

Once again, poisoned bait lain down for wolves have caused problems for the griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) but their numbers here represent the majority of Europe’s population.  Despite their gruesome reputation, the world needs vultures to keep disease at bay - sanitising natural habitat by eating flesh that, if left, would cause contamination of the countryside.

The predators of the Los Picos d'Europa (indeed, the whole of Spain) are hanging on by their clawtips; from wild cat to Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus), raptors, wolves and bears - rich and rare - and it would be devastating to see these beasts classed as "extinct in Spain".

There are three Massifs in Los Picos as shown on the map below. The Western Massif (Les Peñes Santes) is to the west of the Ríu Cares. The Central Massif (Los Urrieles) is between the Cares Gorge and the Ríu Tielvi. The Eastern Massif (Andra) is to the East of the Tielvi River. The Eastern Massif is the area to the south of Sotres and Tresviso. Most of the caves drain into a river resurgence cave called Cueva l'Agua near Tresviso and at an altitude of 454 metres, and several kilometres long rises nearly 400 metres in altitude.

There are many more caves marked on the sketch maps and some have just a described location- anyone feel like walking around the mountainsides for a few weeks with a GPS system?