Aviles is that most unique of places. A town with a long history and well preserved centre with beautiful buildings, it has a vibrant cultural and gastronomic scene that centres on the local and traditional, and a recent period of industrial decline followed by a cultural and architectural renaissance. There’s an urban beach and more rugged beaches close by. Yet, it gets a fraction of the tourists you might expect.
For centuries, Aviles made its living from trade and fishing. It gained a reputation as an elegant and sophisticated city. The telegraph and railway arrived, it became one of the first towns in Spain to have electric lighting. The port grew and industrialised during the 19th and 20th centuries, but a decision by the fascist government of Franco transformed Aviles into an industrial Gomorrah.
In the 1950s, the government decreed that Aviles would become home to a massive steel plant only a sort distance from the historic centre. They drained nearby wetlands, altered the course of the river and, over the next three decades, the industry expanded hugely. It would eventually produce over a third of Spain’s steel needs. Matching industrial growth, the town’s population quadrupled to 85,000 people.
This transformation came with an environmental cost. Coal smoke blackened the ancient buildings and the estuary became an ecological disaster. Insult to injury, the economic good times didn’t last long. The 1980s brought industrial decline. Soon the blast furnaces began to close, jobs were lost, and the local economy went into a downward spiral. Aviles gained an altogether less salubrious reputation, one the town is slowly reversing.
Central to that is a remarkable set of buildings on industrial land between the old town and the steelworks. The startlingly brilliant white forms in a wide, open plaza are the brainchild of Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer. Opening in 2011 with an auditorium for the performing arts, a cinema and an exhibition space, the Centro Niemeyer is the heart of Aviles’ plans for sustainable urban regeneration.
It may not have had the hoped for Guggenheim-effect that Bilbao witnessed, but it has definitely put Aviles on the map for more than industrial decline. Walking through the exposed plaza on a hot day is a bit like being in a bizarre, Daliesque landscape bleached by the bright sun. For all the drama of Niemeyer’s only building in Spain, it is the lively historic town centre that will bring me back to Aviles.
The medieval centre is filled with attractive, atmospheric streets and squares. The central Plaza de España is connected to small squares and pleasant green spaces like Parque de Ferrera and Parque del Muelle by delightfully porticoed stone paved streets. Two of the finest are Calle de Rivero and Calle de Galiana, where you can stroll past weathered stone houses dating to the 14th and 15th centuries.
There are several ancient churches, the Iglesia de los Padres Franciscanos was founded in the 12th century and reflects the early wealth of the town. Some of that wealth came from Spain’s colonial possessions. A history associated with the conquistador Pedro Menéndez. A captain of the Spanish treasure fleet, he founded St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, but only after slaughtering a colony of French Huguenots.
There is a statue of this extraordinarily violent man in Parque del Muelle. Next door to the park is one of the oldest areas of the town, Barrio Sabugo. The former fishing quarter is centred around Plaza del Carbayo and 13th century Iglesia de Santo Tomás de Sabugo. It is a very pretty part of town and thanks to its many bars and restaurants it’s one of the most vibrant. It is also home to a sculpture of La Monstrua.
Eugenia Martínez Vallejo, was a young girl known as La Monstrua (Monstrous Woman). Eugenia had a medical condition, probably Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic disorder that can lead to extreme obesity. To the 17th century Spanish royal court she was a freak to be paraded as entertainment. Two portraits of her – one clothed, the other naked – were commissioned by King Charles II.
We visited Aviles on a day trip from Cudillero, but it is a fascinating place that would be a low-key base for exploring the region. After a morning in the town, we ate a lunch of traditional Asturias bean stew, fabada asturiana, in a small taverna on Calle de Rivero, before taking a stroll along the waterfront to a sculpture called Aviles by artist Benjamín Menéndez. It’s said to be the largest urban sculpture in Asturias.
It was a hot day and we decided to cool off at the beach. Aviles has an urban beach at the resort of Salinas, but we decided to go along the coast a little to the altogether wilder Playa de Xago. A walk through dunes below cliffs, off which several paragliders floated above the ocean, brought us to a wide beach. The waves were rough, but it was reviving to be in the chilly water off a quiet beach backed by dunes and cliffs.
