The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community in northern Spain, facing the Cantabrian Sea and closed to the south by the Cantabrian Mountains. It is a green, rainy land of mountains, meadows, woods, fishing villages and wild beaches, with just over a million inhabitants. The title of Prince or Princess of Asturias belongs to the heir to the Spanish throne, currently Princess Leonor (see the royal family).
The cradle of Christian Spain
According to tradition, in 722 the Visigothic noble Pelayo defeated Muslim troops at the battle of Covadonga, starting the Reconquest and founding the kingdom of Asturias, the first nucleus of Christian Spain (see the Reconquest). At Covadonga, in the Picos de Europa, you can visit the holy cave with Pelayo's tomb and a neo-Romanesque basilica in a spectacular setting. The Asturian kingdom left us the ninth-century churches of Asturian pre-Romanesque, a UNESCO site, such as Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo, on the hills of Oviedo.
The cities
The capital, Oviedo, is an elegant university city with the Gothic cathedral of San Salvador and the Cámara Santa, a well-kept old town and statues lining its streets; every year it hosts the Princess of Asturias Awards, among the most prestigious prizes in the Spanish-speaking world. Gijón, the most populous city, is a lively port with a fine seafront, San Lorenzo beach and the Cimadevilla quarter; Avilés has an arcaded old town and the Centro Niemeyer, designed by the Brazilian architect.
Nature and coast
The Picos de Europa National Park, shared with Cantabria and Castile and León, is one of Europe's hiking paradises, with the Covadonga lakes, the Cares gorge and Naranjo de Bulnes. The coast alternates cliffs, beaches such as Torimbia and Gulpiyuri, an "inland" beach a few dozen metres from the sea, and fishing villages such as Cudillero, Llanes, Lastres and Ribadesella. Inland, the mining valleys recall the region's industrial past, and the Somiedo reserve is home to brown bears.
Flavours
Asturian food is hearty: fabada, a stew of large white beans with chorizo, morcilla and lacón; cachopo; fish and seafood; cheeses such as Cabrales, a blue cheese matured in caves; sweets such as rice pudding and casadiellas. The signature drink is cider (sidra), which in sidrerías is poured from on high with an outstretched arm to aerate it: the escanciado. Asturian cider culture was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2024.
Getting there
Asturias has an airport near Avilés, and high-speed trains link it to Madrid in about three and a half hours. It lies on the Northern Way and the Primitive Way to Santiago. Below you will find a map of our guides and the municipalities.
Destinations on the map
Guides to the community
Gijón
A lively, working seaside city, with a fishermen's quarter on the headland, a long city beach and Spain's greatest cider culture.
Oviedo
An elegant, spotless city, capital of the first Christian kingdom of the Reconquista, with pre-Romanesque churches unique in the world and…