Cangas de Onís: The Gateway Town, with Its Bridge, Market and Sidrerías
The Sella runs cold and clear beneath a stone bridge in Cangas de Onís, and a large cross hangs from the central arch above the water. It is a copy of the Cruz de la Victoria, the emblem on the flag of Asturias. It hangs here because this small town, of fewer than seven thousand people, was the first capital of the Kingdom of Asturias, and so the starting point of a very long story.
It is also where you will buy bread, fill the car, and eat most of your dinners. Casa Llenín is ten kilometres up the valley.
The bridge and the cross
Everyone calls it the Puente Romano. It was in fact built in the Middle Ages, though a crossing has stood at this spot since Roman times. Three unequal arches rise over the river in a steep hump, the middle one framing the cross.
The best view is from the riverbank below, where the whole span reflects in the water. In summer the Sella is low and green; in spring, snowmelt from the Picos turns it fast and loud. You can walk over the top. The cobbles are polished and steeper than they look.
A few minutes away, the small chapel of Santa Cruz stands on a mound that turns out to be older than the chapel: there is a dolmen beneath it, some five thousand years old. Ask at the tourist office about opening times.
Sunday is market day
If you are with us on a Sunday, the market is not optional. It is the morning. Around a hundred stalls fill the streets near the church of Santa María from 9:30 until early afternoon. This is where the valley does its weekly shopping, and it is not staged for visitors.
You will find Cabrales and Gamonéu sold by the people who made them, sacks of white faba beans, dark heather honey in unlabelled jars, cured meats, bread, walnuts, and whatever is in season. Stallholders will cut you a taste if you ask a question. The air smells of cheese, chestnuts and damp morning.
Go by ten. The best Cabrales is gone by mid-morning. Eat a bollo preñao, a bread roll baked around a chorizo, standing up, with a coffee.
Evenings: sidrerías by the Sella
Cangas has a good concentration of sidrerías, where the cider is poured from arm’s height and the food leans to generous plates of cachopo, fabada and grilled river trout.
El Polesu is the classic choice. La Caldera is where locals go for cachopo. Picu Urriella serves a reliable menú del día. On Friday and Saturday nights in summer, book or arrive early.
For something closer to home, San Martín Gastrobar in Mestas de Con is 1.5 km from the house.
The gateway to everything
Covadonga is nine kilometres from the town. The buses to the lakes leave from the bus station. The road east leads past our turning and on to Arenas de Cabrales and the Cares Gorge; the road north follows the Sella to Arriondas and the coast at Ribadesella. The visitor centre for the national park, Casa Dago, is on the main street and is the place to ask about trail conditions.
Practical tips
- Distance: 10 km from Casa Llenín, about fifteen minutes on the AS-114.
- Parking: there is free parking by the river south of the bridge, and small paid car parks in the centre. On Sunday mornings, arrive before ten.
- Supermarkets: Alimerka and Día are both in town. The nearest shop to the house is La Vega in Benia de Onís, 5 km the other way.
- Cash: cards are accepted almost everywhere, but market stalls sometimes prefer cash. There are several cash machines on the main street.
- Fuel: fill up here. There is none in the hills.
Most visitors see Cangas de Onís through a windscreen on the way to somewhere else. Staying ten kilometres away, you get it the other way round: the bridge at eight in the morning with nobody on it, the market before the day-trippers, and a table at the sidrería where, by the third evening, they know what you are going to order.
