Tourism
About Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is, without doubt, a privileged region. Pressed narrowly between the rough Cantabrian Sea to the North and the steep peaks of the Cantabrian Range to the South, Asturias is a land of contrasts, with a diversity of landscapes, constantly changing. One of the characteristic feature in Asturias is its diverse and pleasant land that invites one to enjoy and contemplate it.
The Asturian landscape with its variety of green and grey tints are unique in Spain. The coastal fringe is dotted with tiny fishing ports; there, the rocky cliffs separate the wide sandy beaches from charming isolated and tiny coves. In the interior there is a mixture of narrow valleys and canyons, carved by tumultuous rivers that every year are visited by salmon; and neadows bordered by dense woodlands.
Asturias keeps important relics of the past, with their own singularities, too. Caves of Prehistoric Ages have been recently discovered decorated with wall paintings, tools, artifacts and other evidence of the Asturiense, a prehistoric era, unique in the world. Other remains of Asturiense are ancestral dances, that hace survived till our days: The best known are pericote and corri-corri. More modern are the castors (Celtic villages); also the ephemeral Kingdom of Asturias, pioneer in Spain`s struggle against muslims, bequeath us fine monuments in the Preromanesque style; some of them have been declared “the heritage of mankind”.
This peculiar mosaic offers a generous proof of many artistic styles (Romanesque, renaissance, gothic). Some habits have survived almost intact for centuries, partially because of the region’s isolation, forcing the development of an economy based on its own natural resources.
This coexistence of tradition and modernisation is not easy. Asturias finds itself in a permanent struggle to keep its traditional and adapt to the modern age. Today Asturias suffers strong economic recessions in the industrial and farming sectors; nevertheless the region is braverly fighting and hopes these efforts are helping to find new sources of wealth and that the tourism industry will be one of them.
A space to invite to discover, a place to get lost is an advantage, where any road or highway leads to some surprising point.