Village
Valdés is an Asturian concejo of the Eo-Navia comarca, 90 kilometres from Oviedo, whose capital is Luarca, sitting just one metre above sea level at the mouth of the río Negro. The concejo, with about 10,780 inhabitants, combines a coastline of cliffs, estuaries, dunes and beaches, among them those of Otur, Barayo, Cadavedo and the three of Luarca itself, with a mountainous area not exceeding 1,100 metres. It is also watered by the río Esva, which runs 29 kilometres through the municipality before taking the name Canero. Luarca has the most important fishing port of western Asturias; the concejo celebrates San Timoteo on 22 August and, at Cadavedo, the La Regalina pilgrimage above the cliffs.
Curiosity
It looks out over the Cantabrian Sea from the La Atalaya promontory, beside the lighthouse and the chapel; Severo Ochoa, born in the town and Nobel laureate in Medicine in 1959, is buried there, his remains moved so that he could rest beside his wife.
Monument
High on La Atalaya, next to the lighthouse, stands the stone table where for centuries the town's guild of seafarers and navigators met to decide the affairs of the sea.
Activity
On the last Sunday in July, at the Aristébano braña, between Valdés and Tineo, a wedding is staged in the manner of the vaqueiros de alzada, the transhumant herders of the west; it is declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest.
Nature
Rocky headland about sixty metres high above the Cantabrian Sea, one of the most exposed points of the coastal platform of Valdés; from it a good part of the coastline between Luarca and Cudillero can be seen. At its tip stands the Cabo Busto lighthouse, with an aero-maritime optical apparatus, owned by the Port Authority of Avilés, next to the village of Busto. Nearby runs the short-distance footpath PR-AS 4, which allows this stretch of the western Asturian coast to be walked.
Historical milestone
The biochemist born in Luarca on 24 September 1905 received the 1959 Nobel Prize in Medicine, shared with Arthur Kornberg, for his work on the synthesis of RNA; he is buried in the cemetery of his native town.
Nature
Included within the protected landscape of the Esva river, in the Asturian concejo of Valdés, these gorges form a canyon carved by the river along the stretch running from San Pedro de Paredes to La Chanona, between the heights of Andornoso and Villagermonde: six kilometres of gorge with up to 400 metres of elevation difference. Its 760 hectares, covered with oak groves and a strip of riverside vegetation, were declared a natural monument on 4 April 2002.
Monument
A defensive tower with a square plan and an arched doorway, built in the late Middle Ages, probably in the 10th or 11th century, at one end of the estate of the Villademoros family, an Asturian family of ancient lineage said to descend from King Pelayo; it appears to have had a military use during the Asturian Monarchy. Next to the tower stands the Palacio de Villademoros, from the 18th century and also a listed monument, with which it today forms a group of buildings. It stands next to the village of Villademoros, near the coastal route of the Camino del Norte and the cliffs of western Asturias. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in the Boletín Oficial del Estado of 12 June 1961 and partially restored in 1987.
Activity
An open-air festival held on the field of La Garita, next to the hermitage of Santa María de Riégala, in the village of Cadavedo, municipality of Valdés; it is also known as La Riégala, and dates back to 1931, when it was promoted by Father Galo. It begins in the morning with a parade of floats decorated with bunches of alfiladas and flowers from the A Rapa quarter to the festival field, where the pregón (opening address) is read in faliella, the western Asturian dialect, and the danza prima begins; after the solemn Mass, the Virgen de Riégala is carried out in procession. The day continues with a countryside meal, folk dances and a raffle of alfiladas, and ends at night with a verbena (open-air dance). It lasts four days, from Saturday to Tuesday, the day the bollo preñao is eaten, and it is declared of regional tourist interest.