Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Piloña

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

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Nature · 3 Activities

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Spain › Principality of Asturias › Oriente › Piloña

What to see and do in Piloña

Piloña
Village
Piloña is a concejo of around 6,700 inhabitants with its capital at Infiesto, in eastern Asturias, run through from west to east by the Piloña river, which rises on the mountain of Peñamayor, in Bimenes, and flows into the Sella near Arriondas. Its relief, mountainous with narrow valleys, is surrounded by ranges such as the Sueve to the north or Aves to the south, where the Vízcares peak reaches 1,420 metres, the highest point in the concejo. Among its tributaries, the Borines river stands out, well known for its mineral-medicinal waters. It celebrates the Hazelnut Festival; Neanderthal remains appeared in its El Sidrón cave, and Romanesque churches dot its valleys, such as San Juan de Berbío.
Hórreos of Espinaréu
Monument
The village has some twenty hórreos and half a dozen paneras, some of medieval tradition and with the oldest example dated 1548; their doors and colondras display carvings of six-petalled rosettes and solar motifs.
Hazelnut Festival
Activity
Since 1972 Infiesto has paid tribute, on the first Sunday in October, to the fruit that made the municipality famous; the event, declared a Festival of Tourist Interest of the Principality, combines a craft fair with the sale of freshly harvested hazelnuts.
Archaeological site of El Sidrón
Nature
The cave of El Sidrón, in the concejo of Piloña, is the largest Asturian cavity formed in Tertiary conglomerates and serves as a refuge for five species of bats, besides sheltering rock art with red-colored signs. In 1994 the first human remains, about 49,000 years old, appeared here, in the Borines area; today they add up to 2,500 fossils from thirteen Neanderthals, the best such collection in the peninsula and a key source of ancient DNA. It is declared a Lugar de Interés Geológico of international relevance by the Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, within the category of Pliocene-Pleistocene vertebrate sites, and in 2022 the National Geographic Society included it among the seventeen most important paleontological sites on the Iberian Peninsula.
Infiesto Hazelnut Festival
Activity
Held on the first Sunday in October since 1972, it offers the Virgin the first fruits of the Piloña hazelnut harvest and fills the municipal capital with stalls; the local varieties of this crop are the casina, the quirós and the amandi.
Festival of el Asturcón
Activity
The Asturcón Festival is held in the concejo of Piloña and commemorates the asturcón, the native horse breed of Asturias that came close to disappearing and which today lives semi-wild in the Sueve area. In the majada of Espineres, on the slopes of this mountain range, breeders gather every summer to brand and present the foals born that year. Declared Fiesta de Interés Turístico Regional (official distinction for festivals of tourist interest in Spain) in 1994, it reached, in August 2019, the declaration of Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional de España.