Asturies, Camín al andar

Asturies, Camín al andar

El Salvador Way

Stage 2: Campumanes - Mieres

Stage of 20.01 kilometers that runs through the councils of Lena and Mieres, members until 1836 of a single municipality, called the conceyón for its great extension, and which had its capital in La Pola de Lena, a town where the Camino reaches just 4 kilometers after starting this route.

The entirety of the Way coincides in this stage with asphalted sections, either road shoulders or the fluvial path next to the Caudal river that is taken from the exit of Ujo until the arrival in the capital of Miere. A constant descent is maintained throughout the stage, from 370 m at Campumanes to 200 m at Mieres, configuring a route without major traffic incidents.

The Jacobean route enters this stage in the middle of the Caudal mining basin, a territory affected since the middle of the 19th century by intense industrialization derived from the exploitation of coal from the subsoil and the consequent installation in this area of ​​numerous companies dedicated to the exploitation and the transformation of that material. The work of these mining companies also extended to the promotion of workers’ housing and other equipment, some of which can be seen in the circular by Ujo and the capital of Miere, in the case of the housing for senior managers of the first locality, the housing for workers (standing out for their antiquity the so-called Ujo barracks, next to those that our route passes) or facilities such as schools and hospitals.

The classical cultural heritage is represented by traditional constructions, which subsist mainly in the small towns of Lena and Mieres through which the Camino circulates and by some distinctive element, such as the Romanesque church of Ujo, of which today only the façade remains. after the integral reform of the temple undertaken at the beginning of the XX as a consequence of the immediate passage of the railway line. You will also pass near the pre-Romanesque church of Santa Cristina de Lena, declared a World Heritage Site in 1985, and which can be reached from the Camino by making a small detour from the official route.

The Camino de Santiago is present in the history of this territory since the Middle Ages. At the starting point of the stage, Campumanes, there was a hostel already mentioned in documents from 1247 and that would have its continuity in the modern-era hospital called Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. More pilgrim hospitals existed in Vega del Ciego (founded in 1642), in Pola de Lena (whose hospital of Nuestra Señora de la Alberguería is cited in documents from 1722 but without a doubt its foundation is much earlier) and in Villallana (with its Hospital de Nuestra Señora de la Alberguería, founded in the 16th century). Already in the council of Mieres, pilgrim hospitals are documented in Ujo (founded at the end of the 15th century) and in the municipal capital, where the existence of a shelter in 1186 is documented, next to the old access bridge to the town, which in the seventeenth century moved its activity to the hospital of Santa Catalina, in use until the nineteenth century.

Stage monuments

Stage locations

Stage description

The stage begins in the center of Campumanes, at the intersection of Felipe Canseco street with the road that heads towards Sotiello. At this point it is possible to take the detour along this last road and go, by an alternative path to the official one, towards the pre-Romanesque church of Santa Cristina de Lena.

The official path continues along Felipe Canseco street, soon finding itself, on the right hand side, with the Santo Cristo chapel.

After the chapel, you will soon arrive at the Revillagigedo palace, on the right hand side, a rectangular-plan, two-storey building, attached to a three-storey corner tower, a possible origin of the construction. In front of the palace there is a small fountain, and past the monument, within its plot, there is a stone bridge, now not accessible to pedestrians, to cross the Huerna river, which is now crossed by a concrete bridge parallel to the historic one.

After crossing the river, continue along the shoulder of the AS-242 regional road, soon arriving at a small group of houses that you pass in front of, among which there is a traditional construction with a developed wooden corridor on the upper floor. Without taking any detour, continue along the shoulder, crossing under a highway viaduct and arriving just after at the El Reondu spring, which is on the left hand side of the road.

Just one hundred meters after the source, the town of El Reondu is located, which is crossed by following the route of the AS-242.

You pass by traditional constructions, some with a granary, and next to other more recent ones, one of them designed in imitation of a palatial construction, built with large stone blocks, a shield and recesses in the openings. In this town there is also the possibility of deviating from the official path to approach the church of Santa Cristina de Lena by crossing a footbridge over the highway, on the right hand side of the route.

Continue along the hard shoulder, parallel to the A-66 highway, which runs to the right of the Camino. Half a kilometer after leaving the town behind, you come to a communications junction, having to continue straight on the AS-242, leaving the accesses to the highway on the right.

After another 800 meters along the hard shoulder, between meadows and some isolated houses (some of traditional Asturian typology), you will reach the town of Vega’l Rey.

In the first place, a set of newly built single-family homes appear, in an area with a sidewalk, which then gives way to the buildings in the center of the town, among which those of Asturian popular typology stand out, with corridors and wooden galleries, existing also some granary, such as one located, on the right hand side of the road, next to the access to a pedestrian walkway that crosses the highway and that leads to Santa Cristina de Lena, in what constitutes another detour from the official path.

La Vega’l Rey is crossed by the AS-242 road, continuing a little ahead of the road at a junction with a road that leads to the highway, being soon after visible, on the right, after the highway and at a stop, the pre-Romanesque church of Santa Cristina.

Continue along the shoulder of the road, between meadows and with the Lena River running partly in parallel, on the right, to this road. After crossing the railroad tracks, you reach the town of La Vega’l Ciegu, just one kilometer after leaving La Vega’l Rey behind.

La Vega’lCiegu is crossed by the regional road, appearing before reaching the center of the town the parish church, behind the highway, on the right hand side of the road, being able to access it by a pedestrian walkway, under which the road passes before reaching the town center. Once past that footbridge, you pass by a fountain from 1907, in a curve in which you continue straight ahead, but which leads to the center of La Vega to the left.

After leaving the fountain behind, the road runs between strips of houses that flank the path for a few meters. These are semi-detached single-family houses, of two heights (ground floor and upper floor), some of which have balconies with bars on the upper floor. One of those houses, on the right hand side, of not very old construction, has a small shield on its façade.

Leaving these houses behind, and after passing between meadows, you come to the chapel of Santa Ana, linked to the large house located on your right, the Casa de Palacios.

The path deviates at this point for about 140 meters from the road, to run next to the chapel and next to the access portal to the house, then going between stone walls and meadows, finally merging again with the road. by which the town is left behind. From this point there is already a sidewalk on the left side of the road, continuing along the same until reaching, already in just two hundred meters, the first warehouses (in the industrial estate of Masgaín) and buildings that announce the arrival in the capital of the council of Lena, La Pola.

La Pola is crossed from South to North following the axis that marks the AS-249 road, which in the center of the town is transformed into long walks and streets that run alongside the town’s main buildings and public spaces.

At the entrance to La Pola, the first thing that appears is a large roundabout, preceded, on the right hand side of the road, by large ships. In the center of this roundabout there are two statues alluding to the zamarrones ??, the work of Urruti.

After the roundabout, you pass the Vital Aza school on your right, continuing along the sidewalk until you reach a new roundabout, preceded by the municipal swimming pools building and the Jesús Suárez Valgrande sports center and the Benedicto Nieto Institute.

After that roundabout different modern blocks of houses rise. Continue straight ahead, without taking any detour, along Robledo street, which then leads to Vital Aza street, between residential buildings that later give way to an older construction, such as the so-called Chalet Adelina, on the left, or the birthplace of the writer Vital Aza, on the right hand side, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in ¿?, and originally a house linked to the adjoining palace of the Marquises of Reguera, located in front of the Lena town hall building, preceded by a small space landscaped, in which a statue dedicated to Vital Aza himself stands.

The Camino passes through this area, between the town hall and the palace and the small chapel attached to it, continuing straight ahead, to arrive shortly after the central park of the capital, that of Alfonso X el Sabio, presided over by the church building. parish of San ¿? The work “Hálito de Lena”, by the sculptor Diego Segura, is located in a corner of this space, on top of some stairs that lead to an area of La Pola with abundant cider houses and old buildings.

After leaving the park behind, continue straight ahead, along Corporaciones de Lena street, soon passing in front of the Vital Aza theater building, on the right-hand side of the route.

A little further on, we pass the Jesús Neira public school on the left and then the Pilar school on the right.

After the schools, continue along Calle Hermanos Granda until finally reaching a roundabout where you continue straight on (the road leads to the junction with the highway to the right), next to tall towers of houses on the right-hand side of the road. After passing a gas station and one more block of buildings, take a detour to the right, next to this block, going down a ramp that leads to the Lena River. The route continues to the left, along the river walk.

Some 230 meters later, after having crossed a river by a modern footbridge, the river walk is abandoned, turning left at the place of La Barraca and advancing towards a large railway viaduct, before reaching which it joins the road Autonomous AS242, following its shoulder, to the right.

You pass next to a strip of houses, in La Barraca, then continue along the shoulder of the road between meadows on the right and some large concrete walls on the left, containing the railroad tracks that run on the left, in parallel to the road and at a higher elevation. Further on you will reach the town of La Vega, with a fountain at the entrance, crossing the town following the route of the road, between low-rise houses and some granaries. Among the houses you can see, on the right hand side, and behind some meadows, a large industrial facility.

Just after La Vega you reach the town of Villayana, along the road renamed at this point as Avenida del Camino de Santiago, with a sidewalk in the area between houses, already in the urban nucleus.

You pass by some house of great interest, case of a corner house with three floors, with wooden corridors on the two upper floors.

In the center of town, the path temporarily deviates from the road, taking a detour to the right along Calle la Panera, next to a large bread basket, and descending between the houses until reaching the Plaza del Cristo, presided over by the church de San Martín, in front of which there is a fountain and, on top, a granary with loaded walls and painted in white.

After passing the church, you go up a street that leads back to the road, continuing along it to the right, passing in front of a strip of one- and two-story houses, on the final route of the road through the town of Villayana .

Leaving these houses behind, it continues between isolated buildings, some warehouses and parallel to the train tracks, which at some point required the construction of viaducts visible from the road.

You pass by the industrial areas of Vachines, Vegamoru and the so-called old Roman workshops, all of them made up of large warehouses and some houses linked to them. In the place of La Senriella, where there used to be a roadside sale, the transition from the council of Lena to that of Mieres takes place.

Afterwards, it goes on to circulate along the river, which is on the right, while the left flank is limited by high stone retaining walls of the railway lines, passing the road over some section of old railways that have already disappeared. railway traffic control booths, then arriving at the town of Ujo, already in the council of Mieres.

You access Ujo, after a road junction, crossing the beginning of the bridge that crosses the Caudal river (formed a little higher, in Sovilla, from the union of the Lena and Aller rivers) and that leads to the right to Figareo and to the Turón valley.

Crossing that bridge, the great building of the engineers of the old Spanish Coal Society appears on the left. You pass in front, accessing the local road MI-3, which runs through the entire town, and that for a section without sidewalks leads to the center of the town. In front of that engineers’ villa, you can take a detour that allows you to cross Ujo following the route of the river walk, without entering the interior of the town.

The official path continues towards the center, between not very tall houses, many with wooden galleries, arriving after 300 meters at a detour that leads, to the left, towards the church of Santa Eulalia and the square that it presides over, where it is located the Civil Guard barracks and a fountain.

After crossing the square, continue to the right, to link again with the general highway MI-3 in its transit through the town, continuing to the left and passing in front of two large blocks of workers’ housing, of the type known as barracks, with three levels, counting the two upper ones with wooden corridors, which serve as access to the houses from the lateral stairs that articulate the blocks of the barracks vertically.

On the right hand side, a little further on, there is a large house with two shields, and then, after a curve, the remains of an old chocolate factory.

It continues along the main Uxo crossing, among other houses of great interest, of a working-class and popular type.

Leaving those houses behind, you pass, already on the outskirts of Uxo, next to a health center and a sports center, after which you join, on the right, with the river path, along which the Jacobean route continues for the next 4.7 kilometers, approximately.

At first, you pass by the mining waste heap of Reicastro, to the left of the Camino, later reaching the town of Santullano, passing in front of its railway station and passing under the start of the bridge that leads to the parish church of this town, located on the other side of the Caudal river.

After Santullano, you enter the urban area of Mieres, passing by the places of El Pedroso, El Praón and El Requexáu, and then circulating in front of the warehouses of the Gonzalín industrial estate, seeing the first ones on the other side of the river. neighborhoods of Mieres.

After the polygon, you will arrive at the Mieres railway station, continuing straight ahead along the path, leaving the Siana bridge on the right and later connecting with the now pedestrianized bridge of La Perra, made of iron and stone, near which you It located the historic Puente alberguería, already mentioned in 1186.

This pilgrim hospital, next to the bridge, would already be in operation in 1189, when a document alludes to its foundation by Gonzalo Pérez Gibelín and his wife. In that year 1189, Gundisalvo Petri donated it to the Oviedo cathedral, moving in later centuries to change its location, towards the urban area of Mieres, its heir being the Santa Catalina hospital, which in 1564 was located on La Calle, in one of the the historical centers of Mieres, while later, after suffering the effects of a flood, it moved to the Plaza de La Paraxuela.

The Caudal river is crossed by the bridge of La Perra, having then to descend some stairs to circulate through an underpass of the highway that, in turn, leads to other stairs that allow access to a pedestrian walkway that crosses the railroad tracks of narrow gauge, descending directly to Manuel Llaneza street, leaving the FEVE narrow gauge railway station on the right.

Continue along that street, reaching a roundabout, after which you continue straight ahead, leaving the old Basque Asturiano railway station on the right (next to which an old steam locomotive from 1902 is preserved) and the modern neighborhood built on the old railway grounds.

Shortly afterwards, you will arrive at the central park of Mieres, that of Jovellanos, on the left, continuing along Manuel Llaneza street, soon arriving at the large building of the Aniceto Sela schools, past which the route continues, arriving a little further on at the building from the old school of mining foremen, today converted into the Casa de la Cultura de Mieres.

Finally, this street converges on Ramón y Cajal, turning left and continuing the journey in front of the old Esperanza cinema building.

After the cinema, you will arrive in about 100 meters at the Plaza de La Pasera, presided over by the statue of the writer Teodoro Cuesta and flanked by the parish church of San Juan, this being the end point of this stage.

All stages of El Salvador 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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