Village
Villaviciosa is an Asturian concejo bathed to the north by the Cantabrian Sea, between Gijón and Siero to the west and Colunga to the east, the region's cider capital with about 15,400 inhabitants and numerous apple orchards. Through its territory runs the ría de Villaviciosa, the largest in Asturias, with an important fishing port at Tazones, where Charles V came ashore in 1517 after a storm blew him off course. In the Middle Ages the territory was known as Maliayo; in 1270 Alfonso X founded the present-day town by royal charter, a name which from the 14th century onward was gradually replaced by Villaviciosa, 'fertile town'. At Valdediós stands San Salvador, a pre-Romanesque church from the 9th century. Several of its villages, such as Poreño, have received the Exemplary Village of Asturias award.
Monument
Known as El Conventín, it was consecrated by seven bishops on 16 September 892, in the time of Alfonso III, although it is possible that only the side porch, added late to the temple, is owed to this king. It is the last great work of Asturian pre-Romanesque architecture, with three vaulted naves and remains of its original mural painting. It was connected to the neighbouring monastery of Santa María by a passage demolished in the mid-19th century. Declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (an earlier Spanish heritage protection category, predecessor of today's Bien de Interés Cultural) in 1931, it was restored by Luis Menéndez-Pidal y Álvarez in 1954 and 1970, and in 2011 a first phase of comprehensive rehabilitation was completed that consolidated the building and returned handmade Roman-style tiles to the roof; a second phase, focused on the interior and the mural paintings, remains pending.
Monument
A monastery in the valley that its first monks named Valdediós, in the parish of Puelles, concejo of Villaviciosa. Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile granted the site of Boiges in 1200 to the Cistercians of Sobrado so that they might found a daughter house here; the church was begun in 1218, under master Gualterius, and finished around 1225, closing Asturian Romanesque architecture with already Gothic forms. It enjoyed the favour of Fernando III, but declined until the Mendizábal disentailment suppressed it in 1835; three monks continued living there until 1862. It later passed to the archdiocese of Oviedo, which installed a seminary, and it even became a psychiatric hospital between 1936 and 1937. It shares the meadow with the pre-Romanesque church of San Salvador, El Conventín, from the 9th century.
Monument
A pre-Romanesque temple whose consecration is dated by an inscription, on a pillar, to the year 921, in the time of Fruela II of Asturias. Of basilical plan, with three naves -the central one of double width and height- separated by semicircular arches on pillars, and a tripartite chancel with three apses covered by barrel vaults; to the west a tripartite porch opens with the doorway, above which sits the gallery. It preserves remains of the original coffered paintings, and on the outside retains the Roman concrete characteristic of Asturian architecture. It has been a Monumento Nacional (an earlier Spanish heritage protection category) since 1913, and since 2015 it has formed part of the extension of the Camino de Santiago declared by Unesco for the northern routes. It suffered serious damage in the fire of the civil war, in 1936, and was restored in the 20th century.
Monument
The church of Santa María de la Oliva, also popularly known as Santa María del Conceyu, was built from the founding charter granted by Alfonso X the Wise in 1270, between the late 13th and early 14th centuries, in transition from Romanesque to Gothic. It has three doorways: the main one, splayed, with four archivolts and eight columns with decorated shafts, shows an Annunciation on the keystone and six saints mutilated during the fire suffered in the 1936 civil war; the other two, simpler, open on the sides. It was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (an earlier Spanish heritage protection category) on 3 June 1931 and restored in the mid-20th century by Luis Menéndez Pidal. It lost its parish function in 1838, and between 1873 and 1885 its surroundings were reorganised, separating it from the urban fabric.
Monument
The church of San Juan de Amandi stands at the Algara farmstead, in the maliaya parish of Amandi, in the municipality of Villaviciosa. Dating from the first third of the 13th century, with a single nave and a semicircular apse covered by an oven vault, it concentrates so much carving in its doorways, capitals, corbels and triumphal arch that it has been called the Sistine chapel of Asturian Romanesque. Tradition places an earlier 9th-century temple here, and in 1201 Alfonso IX and his wife Berenguela donated it to the monastery of Valdediós. In the 18th century the apse was dismantled and reassembled stone by stone, and the porch that surrounds it on the south and west was added. Burned during the Civil War, it was repaired under the direction of Luis Menéndez-Pidal, who replaced the ribbed vaults with wooden frameworks.
Monument
The Tazones lighthouse, also called the Villaviciosa lighthouse, stands on the Punta del Olivo or de las Ariceras, next to the hamlet of Villar de Tazones. It has been in service since 1864 and was electrified in 1928; in 1953 a siren was installed, and it is one of the best preserved on the Asturian coast. The tower, octagonal in plan and built of sandstone ashlar, is attached to a two-storey building within a landscaped enclosure closed by a stone wall topped with slate slabs; inside, an iron spiral staircase of 37 steps climbs to the lantern, installed in 1945. Standing 127 metres above the sea, at the tip of the cape, it marks the entrance to the ría de Villaviciosa and offers one of the most open viewpoints on the central Asturian coast.
Curiosity
Tazones is a parish and village in the Asturian concejo of Villaviciosa, with 254 inhabitants spread across its hamlets of La Atalaya, Las Mestas, Villar and the core of Tazones itself, divided into the neighbourhoods of San Miguel and San Roque. In this port, considered one of the most beautiful villages in Spain, Charles I landed in 1517 on his first arrival in Spain from Flanders, an episode re-enacted every year in mid-August during the San Roque festivities. The neighbourhoods of San Roque and San Miguel have formed a Conjunto Histórico (heritage protection category) since 1991. Tazones was an important whaling port in the 16th and 17th centuries, and today it lives off inshore fishing and tourism; on the rocky shore of its beach Jurassic dinosaur footprints are preserved.
Curiosity
Alfonso X granted a founding charter to the Pobla de Maliayo on 17 October 1270, ordering that the settlement be established from the place called Buetes; thus present-day Villaviciosa was born. The town was enclosed by a wall, of which remains are still preserved at the crossing of some streets, and by four gates of which sections survive. In 1484 a fire completely destroyed the capital, and the Catholic Monarchs issued a document granting funds to rebuild the whole area.
Curiosity
Valle, Ballina y Fernández was set up on 24 May 1890 to make sparkling cider and in 1900 brought together at La Espuncia, beside the estuary, a production that until then had been scattered. Its permanent collection can be visited in the original administration building.
Nature
The ría de Villaviciosa, the largest estuary in Asturias, flows into the Cantabrian Sea between the beaches of Rodiles and El Puntal. Its 1,085 hectares were declared a partial nature reserve in 1995, as well as a Site of Community Importance and a Special Protection Area for Birds, and since 7 January 2011 it has also been a Ramsar wetland. The scant contribution of fresh water from the streams that flow into it maintains a relatively high salinity, which conditions its flora and fauna; its marshes serve as a refuge for herons, cormorants and wintering ducks.
Nature
Rodiles beach stretches for nearly a kilometre of fine sand on the eastern side of the mouth of the ría de Villaviciosa, backed by fixed dunes and a lush eucalyptus grove set up for rest. It belongs to the Ría de Villaviciosa Partial Nature Reserve and forms part of the Asturian Costa del Jurásico, close to dinosaur ichnite sites in the cliffs of Tazones. Its wave, known as la Barra, hollow and tubular, ranks among the hundred best in the world and among the four best in Europe, which attracts surfers from across the continent. It has numerous facilities: a picnic area, beach bars, showers, parking and a lifeguard team.
Nature
At low tide Jurassic footprints left by dinosaurs some hundred and fifty million years ago emerge on the rocky platform at Tazones, one of the points on the stretch of Asturian coast known as the Dinosaur Coast.
Activity
Declared a festival of regional tourist interest in 1992, it is held in October every two years, in odd-numbered years, when the harvest is most abundant, with a display of apple varieties, public apple-crushing and competitions built around cider.
Monument
Built in the twelfth century over a temple already consecrated in 1031 by Bishop Adaganeo, and declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (an earlier Spanish heritage-protection category, precursor to the BIC) in 1931, it is one of the major works of Maliayo Romanesque. A lengthy inscription discovered in the nineteenth century by Francisco de Paula Caveda y Solares records the names of its founders, Diego Pérez and his wife Mansuara, and the property they donated for its construction. From its treasury came the celebrated Cross of Fuentes, a masterpiece of medieval Asturian goldsmithing, today outside Asturias: plundered in 1898 and sold to French and later American collectors, J. Pierpont Morgan donated it in 1917 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it is kept. The church, burned during the Civil War, was restored in 1950.
Monument
Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), it preserves from its 12th-century fabric two Romanesque doorways and the chancel arch, embedded in a later remodelling; it is one of the busiest Marian sanctuaries in eastern Asturias.
Monument
In the village of Tazones, in the concejo of Villaviciosa, the districts of San Miguel and San Roque have been declared a Conjunto Histórico-Artístico (Spanish protection category for historic urban ensembles) since 17 June 1991. The parish church stands in the San Miguel district, while San Roque is notable for the Casa de las Conchas, its façade entirely covered with shells of different shapes, sizes and colours. On the beach's rocky shore, accessible at low tide, several three-toed footprints of bipedal dinosaurs are preserved, some forming a trackway, and there are more fossil footprints on a cliff near the lighthouse. The Faro de Tazones lighthouse, in operation since 1864 and electrified in 1928, stands on the Punta del Olivo, 127 metres above sea level, within a landscaped enclosure closed off by a stone wall and slate slabs.
Nature
Protected since 1995 over 1,085 hectares, the largest ría in Asturias is a wintering and migratory resting ground for more than one hundred and fifty species of birds; it has been on the Ramsar list of wetlands since January 2011.
Nature
Set in the mouth of the río España, in the parish of Quintes, it measures around a hundred and seventy-five metres and mixes fine sand with gravel and pebbles amid meadows and cliffs covered in eucalyptus, where oaks, holly and chestnut trees once grew. It receives strong swell all year round, making it one of the beaches favoured by young local surfers, and has a nearby campsite that draws numerous summer visitors. It is accessible by car and has a lifeguard service; it is listed as a Lugar de Interés Comunitario (a protection status under the EU's Natura 2000 network). Its name comes from the Asturian verb «españar», to burst, referring to the noise the waves make as they break against the surrounding rocks.
Activity
Every summer the port of Tazones re-enacts the arrival of 19 September 1517, when a storm drove the future emperor's fleet into this cove; the celebration is a festival of tourist interest of the Principality.
Food and drink
Asturian cider, with a protected designation of origin recognised by the European Union in 2003, has been made in the Principality since pre-Roman times and is an essential part of its culture and gastronomy, as well as a notable tourist draw; Villaviciosa, the concejo of the apple orchards, is its heartland, and encompasses 76 apple varieties. Asturias has 971 registered hectares of orchards and 382 growers, and in 2023 more than 4.3 million bottles of natural and sparkling natural cider were sold under the DOP seal. Since 4 December 2024, Asturian cider and its culture have been Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It is poured from almost a metre up to break the culín before drinking it.
Curiosity
The processional cross of the church of Fuentes, of silver on a wooden core with semi-precious stones and a Roman cameo, was stolen in 1898 and passed through European collecting until J. Pierpont Morgan donated it to the Metropolitan in New York in 1917.
Historical milestone
Alfonso X signed in Vitoria on 17 October 1270 the document ordering the men of the land of Maliayo to settle a town at the place of Buetes under the fuero of Benavente; that Puebla de Maliayo changed its name to Villaviciosa a few decades later.
Monument
Pre-Romanesque temple built in the 9th century that retains original primitive windows and a latticework from the original fabric; it lies somewhat off the pre-Romanesque routes and so is usually visited in solitude, among meadows and apple orchards. It is already documented in the year 1023, in the parish of Bedriñana, on a bank of the ria of Villaviciosa. The latticework of the western façade, its most valuable element, reproduces in stone the stem of a plant with branches curved back on themselves; three biforate windows and a unique roll corbel are also preserved. Owing to its similarity in construction and decoration it is attributed to the same workshop that worked at Valdediós, and it is possible that the same craftsmen raised both churches.
Historical milestone
In October 1937, as the northern front collapsed, the psychiatric hospital installed in the monastery of Valdediós was the scene of the murder of nurses and medical staff, one of the darkest episodes of the war in Asturias.