Asturies, Camín al andar

Asturies, Camín al andar

The Coastal Way

Stage 9: Avilés - Muros de Nalón

Along its 22.2 kilometers, this stage runs between the city of Avilés and the town of Muros de Nalón, through the councils of Avilés, Castrillón, Soto del Barco and Muros de Nalón.

It is a stage of contrasts, between the industrial and port area of ​​the exit of Avilés and the dense forests existing between the limit between the municipalities of Castrillón and Soto del Barco, also crossing small rural towns such as Santiago del Monte or El Castillo, and authentic cities like Piedrasblancas, capital of Castrillón, or Soto del Barco.

One of the great attractions of the stage is that it runs along the Nalón estuary, already in the final stretch of its route, being able to contemplate excellent perspectives of a natural environment of great beauty from the Jacobean route, which inspired at the end of the century XIX to a whole group of impressionist painters gathered around the artistic colony of La Pumariega, in Muros de Nalón. The traditional passage of the estuary, before the construction of the modern bridge, was done by boat, locating the piers near the town of El Castillo, in a place where these structures still exist, configuring a place of great picturesqueness.

This is a stage of continuous ascents and descents, not very steep, highlighting the ascent to the Sierra del Cueplo and the long subsequent descent towards the Ría del Nalón, until reaching the nucleus of El Castillo. For the most part, the Camino runs on asphalt sections, although there is a significant percentage of traffic on dirt and gravel.

The tour begins in Avilés, passing through the old fishing village of Sabugo, and then begins an ascent towards the San Cristóbal hill, from which it is possible to contemplate a wide panoramic view of the port of the Avilés estuary, a place of deep history. Jacobean, to which the arrival by sea of ​​pilgrims of different European nationalities already in the Middle Ages is documented. There were sales or pilgrim hospitals in the so-called Campo del Conde (on the San Cristóbal rasa) and in El Castillo, near the tower-fortress of the same name, founded in the time of the Asturian monarchy and today integrated into a palace. Likewise, there was a pilgrims’ hospital near the destination of this stage, the town of Muros de Nalón, with documentation related to it that allows its existence to be traced back to the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Stage monuments

Stage locations

Stage description

This stage begins in the Plaza de España in Avilés, next to the town hall building. The route continues along Calle Ferrería, located to the right of the town hall houses. This is one of the most characteristic roads in Avilés, which crosses the medieval walled enclosure. It consists of the realization of paving works of this road already between 1676 and 1680. In it there are several sections of houses with arcades, under which small areas of pavement made of small river songs are conserved in some cases. The dominant subdivision on both sides of the street is narrow and long, with buildings from one to three floors. Outstanding examples of houses of interest in this street are the Casa de Cuervo-Arango, from the 17th century (at number 10) or the eclectic building at number 29, from the early 20th century.

After a few meters, the building of the Valdecarzana palace appears on the left, from the Gothic period and today converted into the municipal historical archive.

The street ends at the Plaza de Carlos Lobo, presided over by the Church of the Fathers, with its attached Chapel of the Wings. In front, the Museum of the City of Avilés.

Ferrería Street leads to the Muelle Park, which runs alongside the rear façade of the Camposagrado Palace, in an area where the Tuluergo River used to flow, which served as the boundary between Avilés and the fishing village of Sabugo, which was accessed by a bridge located here.

After leaving the palace behind, continue skirting the Muelle park and come to a crossroads, in the Plaza de Pedro Menéndez, with a historicist fountain in the middle. Continue along this street, leaving the Plaza de las Aceñas on the left, built between 1873 and 1879, in the area of the bourgeois expansion of Avilés.

The route continues along Calle de la Estación, which ascends to the Romanesque church of Sabugo. This street acquired its current configuration between the 19th and 20th centuries, being the one chosen by many Indians to build buildings that they would use mainly for rent. It conserves two buildings with arcades, from a previous period, and interesting buildings, such as the old Ferretería and Quincalla Fernández and company or the villa on the corner with Calle Carreño Miranda.

The path turns to the left, flanking the Romanesque church of Sabugo and reaching the Plaza del Carbayo, surrounded by old buildings, some with only two floors with wooden corridors at the top.

After passing the square, continue to the right along Calle Marcos del Torniello, and at the next intersection, continue in a left direction, linking up with Avenida de Alemania, in an already modern area of Avilés dominated by tall blocks of flats. To the left it is possible to contemplate the building of the new church of Sabugo, presided over by the two tall towers that flank the façade.

Continue along Avenida de Alemania, starting after a roundabout the ascent to San Cristóbal, next to a village of fishermen’s houses on the right, in the Nodo neighborhood.

Más adelante se deja a mano derecha un centro de formación para el empleo y el edificio del colegio de educación especial de San Cristóbal. Desde esta zona alta se puede contemplar una buena panorámica del puerto de Avilés.

You arrive at Valdredo, continuing the ascent through an environment that is increasingly rural, in which the housing blocks give way to the meadows, and to some granary. The building of the Santa Teresa de Jesús Jornet nursing home is left on the left, culminating in the ascent in the La Sablera neighborhood.

The route continues straight ahead, leaving a detour to the Avilés tennis club on the right, finding a fountain on the right hand side shortly afterwards. This is already a distinctly rural area, with small single-family homes, some of them with a corridor on the upper floor. After the building of the neighborhood association La Atalaya, there is no longer a sidewalk, and the Camino runs along the shoulder of the road. In this way, between meadows, houses and some old farmhouse with its granaries and breadbaskets, one arrives at the crossroads known as Campo del Conde, where there is a small square with a triangular plan in front of a strip of houses of one and two heights.

To the right of this space, a road continues that leads to Salinas y Raíces, while the Camino continues along the road on the left, towards Coto Carcedo, along the shoulder of the road, between houses.

After a curve, continue straight ahead, leaving a road detour on the left. A little further down, at another crossroads, continue straight ahead, leaving two separate detours to the right and left, and beginning the descent, along the shoulder of the road, towards the Coto Carcedo urbanization, which will not be accessed. After leaving behind a detour to the left, towards a private estate, and after approximately two hundred meters of descent, take a track, on the left, which after a few initial meters with a concrete surface becomes dirt and stone. At this point there is the transit from the council of Avilés to that of Castrillón.

At this moment, a path begins along a path between lush vegetation, which runs more or less parallel, at the beginning, to the housing blocks of the urbanization that, at a higher level, develops on the right hand side of the route. After a little more than half a kilometer, you will reach an underpass on the regional road? Which is saved through a tunnel made up of a concrete arch. It then continues downhill through the vegetation, passing a small stream over a concrete walkway with two small openings for the circulation of water, starting shortly after the ascent towards the houses in the nucleus of La Plata.

Leave a forest track on your right and go up a road that soon becomes concreted and leads to the AS320 regional road. Continue to the right, along its shoulder, leaving the turnoff to Ferralgo further on to the left, in a steep curve. Continue along the road, passing under a highway viaduct and reaching the nucleus of San Miguel.

 

Shortly after, you pass a detour to a road on the left. A house with a granary soon appears on the right-hand side, later reaching an underpass under the railroad tracks, made up of a stone tunnel, in the area known as El Ventorrillo.

When crossing the tunnel, continue along the shoulder of the regional road, here configured as a straight that, after leaving some houses on the left, connects with the river path that connects Salinas with Piedrasblancas, which you take, thus deviating from the road towards the left, along a track, first gravel and then concreted, which ascends between houses and some granaries and bread baskets, leads to the N632 national road.

You cross this road, facing an old two-story house, with a wooden gallery on the upper floor, after which you turn to the right, ascending a slope between buildings, already in the center of Piedrasblancas, which leads to the street, where among the housing blocks there still survives, isolated, some granary and a two-storey house built in stone, with stalls in the openings and eaves in the cornice. After this house, turn right, passing by the back façade of the old town hall of Castrillón, square, with a small wooded space in the center.

Continue to the left, flanking the Infanta Leonor school building, and ending in the Plaza de Europa, the nerve center of the capital of Castrillón, where the parish church, the Valey cultural center and the town hall houses are located.

After passing the town hall building, on the left, take the first detour to the right, towards the school. Continue along this street, between single-family houses and some granary, until at the end of it there is a fork in which you must choose the road that starts to the right, a local road with no sidewalks that after a curve, in where you can see a granary in the center of a set of agricultural buildings, continue to the left at the next junction, ascending towards the back of the school, being able to contemplate good views to the left of the urban center of Piedrasblancas. .

Just after leaving the circular building of the school’s nursery school on the left, take the detour to the right, along the local road that leads to the neighborhood of La Cruz, in a steep ascent between single-family houses on the left and meadows and some eucalyptus to the right. You pass by a small rest area, with good views over Piedrasblancas, and at the next fork in the road, already in the La Cruz neighborhood, you opt for the path on the left, with concrete walls that surround the plots. the route. At the next crossroads, in a small nucleus of houses, continue to the left, passing shortly after next to a water tank, after which you come to a new fork in the road where the route continues along the one to the right, then passing the firm to be gravel in a path flanked by eucalyptus.

After barely two hundred meters, at another junction with a local road, you continue straight on, along the track, between meadows, masses of eucalyptus trees and some section of the plot with scrubland. Leave on the left, further on, another detour and continue on a slight ascent, and with good views to the right towards ¿? And in the distance Muros de Nalón, reaching the small cluster of houses that constitutes the El Cordel neighborhood, passing in this area the road to be concreted. It circulates along the old Camino Real de la Sierra de El Cordel, which in medieval and modern times had paved sections, as stated in references collected in the Ensenada cadastre of 1753.

After the houses, the track becomes gravel and at a crossroads continue on the left, between meadows, some greenhouse and eucalyptus trees, with some isolated house on this route through the La Lloba mountain.

This path connects with another road, continuing to the right, along a gravel track that runs between bushes and eucalyptus trees. 900 meters later, you will come to a concrete track, leaving a gardening company facilities on the left, among which you can see a large bread basket, and on the right at the top, the town of ¿?. Continue straight on, between sebes, some trees and meadows on both sides, leaving several detours on the left and ending in a curve where you must take the gravel track that emerges to the right, between eucalyptus trees.

This track descends between eucalyptus trees for half a kilometer, until it crosses the small river of La Ferrería through the so-called Ponte de Santiago, a bridge located in a place known as La Pontona. This is a bridge with three eyes, built in masonry and ashlar. The bridge, rebuilt and rehabilitated several times, allows access to an area in which the Camino runs between meadows, soon arriving at the first houses of Santiago del Monte, in the neighborhood of La Ventaniella, also appearing on the left a large viaduct of the Cantabrian highway.

Soon the gravel track converges with a local road, continuing to the right at that meeting. You pass through a short area where there is a sidewalk on one side of the road, to then continue along the hard shoulder, between stone walls that delimit plots and houses, with abundant granaries and bread baskets. You pass by a fountain-washhouse and you come to the Remedios Chapel, with a rectangular floor plan, preceded by a portico supported by two Tuscan-style columns. Top off the building with a belfry with a campaign.

After passing the chapel, in a curve, continue to the left, passing in front of a house with a long corridor on the upper floor, until arriving, in a curve, on the CT-1 road, remaining on the right, before from the road, a house with a showy white gallery on the top floor.

 

Cross the road and continue straight on along a path that leads to the cemetery. This road leads to an open space, in which a covered laundry rises, continuing to the right. You continue strolling between houses located behind closing stone walls, and after leaving a detour to the left, you end up arriving, in the neighborhood of La Banda, at the parish church of Santiago del Monte, with its main facade crowned by a high bell tower.

After passing the church and the cemetery (and the centenary carbayo or oak that stands between them), after a short but intense ascent and after turning a very sharp curve, you will arrive at the national road N643 (which leads to the very right nearby Asturias airport). You cross and continue along the As-318 road that goes to Ranón, leaving a granary on the right.

The ascent along the shoulder of this road will allow us to contemplate, on the left, good perspectives of the Santiago del Monte valley that the Camino has just crossed.

The path enters an area where it will be flanked by a mass of eucalyptus trees. You pass a detour to the right and continue between meadows and some cypress trees that delimit a plot, reaching a pass under the highway. Continue straight ahead, leaving a detour to the center of Panizales on the right. A little further on, in a curve, the road is abandoned to enter the eucalyptus forest along a path of earth and stone, at this moment the transition between the councils of Castrillón and Soto del Barco and beginning to run through the Sierra del Neck.

Shortly after joining this road, the Camino deviates to the left again, entering fully into the wooded mass of eucalyptus. Further on, you pass a detour on the right, and some pools of water on the left. It connects with another track and continues to the right, crowning Mount La Granda and starting the descent towards the town of El Castillo, being able to contemplate on occasions, among the mass of trees, views of the Nalón estuary and, in the background, from the port of San Esteban del Mar.

After just under three kilometers through this eucalyptus forest, you will reach the first homes in La Florida, passing the track to be concreted.

On the left is a house with a chapel and a transept and on the right some old schools from 1860, gazing at a wonderful view, from the front, of the El Castillo tower and the town that has arisen around it.

At the end of this descent you reach the bottom of the valley, crossing a stone bridge without a parapet, completely taken over by the vegetation, over the Canal or Caseras stream. Next, you cross the SB3 road and continue straight ahead, steeply ascending a concrete path that leads to the town of El Castillo. You continue through this nucleus, continuing along Calle El Peregrino, being able to deviate to the right to get closer to the tower.

El Castillo is a town of low houses, with galleries, many of them on the upper floor. From the viewpoint at the end of Calle El Peregrino you can see an excellent panoramic view of the tower complex and the buildings that surround it, as well as the meander that the Nalón River makes in this final section of its route, without forgetting the bridge of La Portilla that crosses it connecting Soto del Barco with Muros de Nalón. Down on the river, you can see the wooden piers that make this place one of the most picturesque of the entire route of the Asturian Coastal Path. At this point, the traditional river boat crossing took place, before the construction of the bridge.

The Camino is now heading towards that bridge, for which it will have to previously skirt the river and cross the council of Soto del Barco.

The route continues along a path parallel to the river, which leaves El Castillo. The cobbled path soon gives way to a local road that leads to Soto del Barco, passing by several houses and a water tank. This road connects with the local SB3, leading to a roundabout, which is bordered, continuing to the left, towards Soto del Barco, along the shoulder of the national N632, until reaching a second roundabout, already in the center of town. Then take the first detour to the right, along a road that leads to the town of La Magdalena, between an old house, in the Indian style, such as Villa Carmen.

On the right you pass the old palace of La Magdalena, today a hotel establishment. After leaving it behind, you will reach an area with good views, on the right, of the destination of this stage, the town of Muros de Nalón.

You arrive at the nucleus of La Magdalena, with its beautiful architecture, where you can see houses of traditional Asturian style, with corridors and galleries, and others of Indian influence and modernist, neoclassical and rationalist styles. The town is crossed by La Ballosa street.

After leaving La Magdalena behind, continue straight ahead along the road ¿?, With good views to the left of the island of the Nalón River, with its kiwi plantations, and of the ¨ ??? valley. On the straight, you pass a detour on the left and a town of slums. Further on, in a sharp curve to the right, the descent towards the Nalón bridge begins, passing by the monolith that reminds us that in this area called La Cantera del Puente there is a mass grave of victims of Franco’s repression.

From the road you can access the La Portilla bridge over the Nalón, coinciding with the route of the national highway 632. There are narrow pedestrian crossings on both sides of the bridge, from which you can see excellent views of the river course and the piers of wood.

After crossing the river, in the council of Muros de Nalón, continue along the shoulder of the national highway, until after skirting a roundabout, in the area known as La Casiella, you take a detour to the left, along a path of earth, with some cobbled section, that between eucalyptus trees leads in a steep ascent to Era, on the outskirts of the Muros de Nalón nucleus, after a journey of just over 350 meters.

This dirt track ends up connecting (at a point with excellent views to the right of the towns of San Esteban de Pravia and La Arena, and of the mouth of the Nalón in the Cantabrian Sea) with a local concrete road, which is followed straight ahead , between single-family homes and granaries.

You come to a crossroads where there is a fountain, and continue to the right, going down a track that leaves a granary on the right and that after a few meters connects with the N-632 national road, along whose shoulder you continue for 65 meters until crossing and connecting with a track that opens to the right, and which runs perpendicular to the road.

This track, first made of stone and earth and then concrete, runs through the neighborhood of La Pumariega, passing by a large white house of three heights, with an attractive wooden gallery on the two upper floors that continues in the large attic that It finishes off a set that is completed with a tall palm tree located in front of the building.

After passing this house, the Jacobean route turns left, connecting with the Carbayones road, which ascends and crosses another road, continuing the road to the left along Eugenio L. Alonso street, in an ascent that leads to a Crossroads, with a green island in the center, where you have to choose the one that continues to the left, next to a small urbanization of semi-detached houses.

Continue along this road, flanked at first by high stone walls, which then give way to concrete walls and later to a group of buildings, in the Travesía de Muros, which lead after a brief tour through Arango street to the Muros town hall building, preceded by a public space presided over by the statue of the first Marquis of Muros, Constantino Fernández Vallín and Álvarez Albuerne.

After leaving the Town Hall building behind, you reach the great Plaza de Muros, dominated by the parish church and its slender tower, a true lighthouse visible from many kilometers around. At this point the stage concludes.

The origin of this central square in Muros starts from the market concession in the 16th century and its configuration responds more to the model of a fairground than a square itself. Today it is presented as an eclectic square, a sample of the different architectural typologies developed from the 18th century to the present day, highlighting a set of 18th century buildings, characterized by their rhythmic and symmetrical facade compositions, resolved with flush balconies or by means of flown corridors and delayed dormers. The house with the number 20 stands out, built in the 18th century by a priest of the Oviedo cathedral, D. Juan del Riego, who ordered inscriptions with religious allusions to be carved on the lintels of the openings. This house was known as Las Pilotinas, since it was inhabited by the daughters of Andrés del Riego, a sea pilot.

All stages of The Coastal Way

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Asturies, camín al andar

Camino de Santiago in Asturias. Information on Jacobean routes in Asturias.

Xacobeo 21-22
Gobierno del Principáu d'Asturies. Conseyería de Cultura, Política Llingüística y Turismu

© 2021 Gobierno del Principado de Asturias

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