Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Illas

What to see and do in Illas (Avilés, Asturias): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Illas

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Spain › Principality of Asturias › Avilés › Illas

What to see and do in Illas

Illas
Village
Illas is a rural municipality of Asturias, in the Avilés district, of 25.51 km² and a little over 1,000 inhabitants, spread among several settlements such as La Peral, Sanzadornín, Viescas and Piniella, besides Callezuela, its capital. With rugged terrain, whose low hills reach 623 m at Pico Friera, its first documented mention dates from the year 857, when the will of King Ordoño I mentions its parish church. In the eleventh century it belonged to the territory of Gozón, and in the thirteenth Ferdinand IV incorporated it into the alfoz of the town of Avilés, on which it depended amid tensions. Its meadows today support dairy cattle, and it preserves the church of San Julián, of medieval origin, and the Bárcena palace, with tower and chapel.
Parish church of San Julián de Illas
Monument
Latin cross in plan and with a square tower, it holds medieval tombs, among them a 14th-century Gothic one decorated with thirteen sharply pointed arches. It is the main monument of a municipality of barely twenty-five square kilometres.
Friera Peak
Nature
Also called Bufarán, at 623 metres it is the roof of Illas and commands a territory of steep gradients between Avilés and the interior. In 1954 a military aircraft crashed on its slopes, killing four airmen.
La Peral cheese
Food and drink
La Peral cheese is a blue cheese made since the early 20th century in the hamlet of La Peral, in the Asturian concejo of Illas, in a small dairy in the village of San Jorge de la Peral. It follows the example of French Roquefort and is made with pasteurized whole cow's milk, to which sheep's cream is sometimes added to reinforce the aroma during ripening, especially in spring and summer. Its paste is white with bluish veins, without a rind, unctuous, with cracks and cavities where the mold develops. It is presented in a cylindrical shape wrapped in metallic foil, with a weight that usually runs around two kilos, and it has a salty, persistent, very buttery flavor, ideal for spreading on toasted bread.
Waterfall of la Friera
Activity
A waterfall hidden among riverside woodland, reached from La Callezuela by a circular route waymarked as the PR-AS 155, which returns along the path of the valley's mills, several of them still standing.
Gorfolí Peak
Nature
At 619 metres it is the roof of the concejo and an exceptional viewpoint: from the summit one takes in the estuary of Avilés, Cabo Peñas and, on clear days, the distant line of the Picos de Europa. Several waymarked paths climb up to it.