Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in Los Barrios de Luna

What to see and do in Los Barrios de Luna (La Montaña de Luna, León): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Los Barrios de Luna

Dam of the Barrios de Luna reservoir 550 m
Ingeniero Carlos Fernández Casado Bridge 6.1 km

Towns near Los Barrios de Luna

What to see in Soto y Amío 7.6 km · 3 places
What to see in Riello 11 km · 7 places
What to see in Carrocera 11 km · 3 places
What to see in Sena de Luna 12 km · 5 places
What to see in Santa María de Ordás 13 km · 2 places
What to see in Rioseco de Tapia 14 km · 2 places
What to see in Valdesamario 16 km · 3 places
What to see in La Pola de Gordón 16 km · 8 places

Spain › Castile and León › León › La Montaña de Luna › Los Barrios de Luna

What to see and do in Los Barrios de Luna

Los Barrios de Luna
Village
Los Barrios de Luna is a municipality of about 300 inhabitants spread across seven villages beside the Barrios de Luna reservoir, which irrigates much of the southern province of León. Nearby runs the CL-626 corridor, the longest regional road in Castile and León, alongside the Ruta de la Plata motorway, which links Gijón with Seville and forms the main access route into Asturias from the meseta. Every year the Fiesta del Pastor (Shepherd's Festival) is held, bringing together an exhibition of the Leonese mastiff, the traditional livestock-guardian dog of the area; in 2022 it reached its 45th edition.
Dam of the Barrios de Luna reservoir
Monument
Concrete gravity dam 80 metres high and with a capacity of 308 cubic hectometres, designed by the engineer Luis de Llanos y Silvela between 1935 and 1936 and built from the summer of 1945 despite opposition from the valley's residents. The gates were closed for the first filling on 15 June 1951, and sixteen villages and hamlets, among them Arévalo, Láncara de Luna and Mirantes de Luna, were submerged beneath its waters. Franco officially inaugurated it in 1956 to irrigate the Páramo Leonés and the Órbigo district, a river formed by the union of the Luna and the Omaña. It is crossed by the AP-66 motorway over the Ingeniero Carlos Fernández Casado cable-stayed bridge, the one with the longest span in Spain after that of the Constitution of 1812 in Cádiz.
The villages flooded by the Luna reservoir
Historical milestone
The reservoir's first filling, on 15 June 1951, submerged sixteen villages, among them Láncara de Luna, San Pedro de Luna and Campo de Luna; the extreme drought of 2017 laid their ruins bare again.
Ingeniero Carlos Fernández Casado Bridge
Monument
The Ingeniero Carlos Fernández Casado bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that crosses the Barrios de Luna reservoir (León) carrying the Ruta de la Plata motorway (AP-66). It was designed by the engineer Javier Manterola, though it was named after Carlos Fernández Casado in tribute to his career, which has caused some confusion over its authorship. Opened in 1983, it has two towers dividing it into three spans -two side spans of 66 metres and a central one of 440-, over a total length of 643 metres, and was built using the balanced cantilever method. For some years it was the cable-stayed bridge with the longest span in the world; in Spain, it was the bridge with the largest span until the opening, in 2015, of the bridge of the Constitution of 1812 in the bay of Cádiz.
Festival of el Pastor y el mastín leonés
Activity
An annual show that reached its forty-fifth edition in 2022 and in which specimens of the León mastiff are exhibited alongside the implements and dress of traditional shepherding in the Luna mountains.
The seven villages on the banks of the Luna
Curiosity
Irede, Mallo, Mora, Portilla, Sagüera, Vega de Caballeros and the municipal seat itself gather barely three hundred households across ninety-four square kilometres, a density of little more than three inhabitants per kilometre.
The limestone cliffs above the reservoir
Nature
The waters of the Luna are hemmed in at the foot of limestone walls that reach elevations above a thousand metres; the contrast between the blue sheet of water and the bare rock defines the comarca's most recognisable landscape.