Logbook · 3 places

What to see and do in Prioro

What to see and do in Prioro (La Montaña de Riaño, León): 3 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities

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Spain › Castile and León › León › La Montaña de Riaño › Prioro

What to see and do in Prioro

Prioro
Village
Prioro is a municipality in the province of León situated 86 kilometres from the capital, at the source of the río Cea, which here joins the Codijal. Its territory is crossed by the GR-1 long-distance path and the Cañada Real Leonesa Oriental, traditionally used for droving between Las Lomas and the El Pando pass. Its forests of Pyrenean oak and beech are home to roe deer, chamois, eagles, capercaillies, bears and wolves, and beside the chapel of the Virgen de El Pando a few metres of Roman road are preserved. With around 340 inhabitants, it preserves four- and two-pitched wooden granaries and the 18th-century parish church of Santiago; in June it holds the Fiesta de la Trashumancia, and on 25 July, Santiago Apóstol.
Hórreos of Prioro
Curiosity
The village preserves wooden hórreos with tiled roofs pitched on two or four sides, the solution used to keep grain out of reach of damp and rodents at the eastern end of the León mountains. Fifteen examples remain, thirteen in good condition, against the sixty-nine that stood in the 18th century; they were declared a Monumento Histórico (historic monument, a Spanish heritage-protection designation) in 1979. Most are of the Asturian type, quadrangular structures raised on four oak posts that isolate them from damp and rodents, with no nails or permanent fixings, so that they could be dismantled and moved. In front of several of them a large carved-log staircase is preserved that does not reach the door, to keep rodents out.
Festival of la Trashumancia de Prioro
Activity
The Transhumance Festival of Prioro is held on the third weekend of June in tribute to the seasonal movement of flocks between the passes of León and the dehesas of Extremadura, an economic mainstay for centuries in the mountains of eastern León. It was first organised in 1994, driven by Felipa Prado Díez and Antonio Vega Gracia, as part of a project to restore old droving routes; in that first edition close to two thousand merino sheep reached Prioro from Torrejón el Rubio, in the province of Cáceres, after travelling hundreds of kilometres along old cañadas. Since then it has been held almost without a break, with the arrival of the flock, a parade of pendones concejiles (parish banners) and shepherding displays such as scything, in a municipality where the río Cea rises.