Cangas de Onís

According to the Asturian tradition, after the battle of Covadonga in 722, the first major Christian victory in Iberia after the Islamic conquest, Pelayo chose Cangas de Onís as the seat of his new kingdom, using an existing Roman settlement where the Sella and the Güeña meet. It remained the capital of the Kingdom of Asturias until 774. In 737 Pelayo's son Favila and his queen, Froiliuba, founded the chapel of Santa Cruz on a prehistoric dolmen at the edge of the town, probably the first church built after the conquest.

The medieval town grew slowly. A parish called Cangas de Onís is recorded in the 14th century, the high-arched bridge over the Sella was built in the reign of Alfonso XI, and the municipality sent representatives to the Junta General of the Principality in 1504. From the 16th century Covadonga developed as a place of pilgrimage, and after a fire destroyed its church in 1777 the rebuilding of the sanctuary brought trade to the valley.

New roads in the mid-19th century, and the Buferrera mines in the mountains, worked by an English company, brought rapid growth, and in 1908 Cangas de Onís was granted the title of city. The national park of the Montaña de Covadonga was created around the lakes in 1918. The Civil War was a hard blow: the town was bombed several times, the chapel of Santa Cruz was destroyed, and charges were laid on the bridges of the Sella, and guerrilla bands remained in the mountains after the war. In 1978 the town hall hosted the founding of the Regional Council of Asturias, the body that prepared the region's autonomy.

Cangas de Onís is bound up with the founding story of Asturias, and its motto, Minima Urbium Maxima Sedium — the smallest of cities, the greatest of seats — recalls its royal past. In Asturian the town is Cangues d'Onís. The sanctuary of Covadonga, with the Holy Cave and the image of the Virgin known as La Santina, patron of Asturias, lies within the municipality, and its feast on 8 September brings pilgrims from across the region; tradition holds that young women who drink from every spout of the fountain there will marry within the year.

The calendar follows the farming and pastoral year. The town's patron, San Antonio, is honoured in June with a procession and, on the following Sunday, La Jira, closed by fireworks. On 25 July the Fiesta del Pastor on the Vega de Enol, near the lakes, is the day when the mountain shepherds choose the wardens who will govern the high pastures, with folk dancing and sport. In October the town holds its contest of Picos de Europa cheeses and a honey fair.

The landscape shapes local identity as much as history. The road to the lakes of Covadonga is a celebrated climb of the Vuelta a España, and the nearby Sella is the scene of the August canoe race from Arriondas to the sea. Several villas in the town, such as Villa Monasterio, are in the style of the indianos, emigrants who came home from the Americas with fortunes.

About 6,300 people live in the municipality (INE, 2025), most of them in the town itself, with smaller numbers in Mestas de Con, Soto de Cangas, Corao, Llano de Con, Labra and Triongo. The municipality peaked at about 11,300 in the mid-20th century and has declined since through emigration; the town has grown in recent years while the villages empty, and only about a fifth of residents are aged between 20 and 40.

Tourism is by far the main source of income. The Covadonga sanctuary and the lakes are among the most visited places in Asturias, and the town's streets are lined with restaurants, cider houses, guesthouses and agencies offering canoeing and walking in the mountains. Farming and cattle-rearing continue in the surrounding valleys.

The year has two rhythms. In summer and on holiday weekends the town is busy with visitors and traffic heading for Covadonga, and buses replace private cars on the lakes road at peak times. Out of season it returns to being a quiet market town for the eastern valleys, with an ageing population and long, damp winters.

The town eats as eastern Asturias eats. Fabada asturiana is the best-known dish: large white beans, fabes de la Granja, soaked overnight and cooked with lacón, or pork shoulder, bacon, morcilla blood sausage and chorizo, with paprika and garlic. Pote asturianu is a stew of cabbage, potatoes, beans and pork products, and fabes con almejas pairs the beans with clams. Salmon are caught in the Sella, and in Asturias the first fish of the season is called the campanu.

The Picos de Europa are cheese country. Cabrales, a blue cheese with a strong flavour, can be made only from the milk of herds raised in a small zone of these mountains; Gamonéu takes its name from the village where it was first made, and Quesu de los Beyos and Afuega'l pitu are other Asturian cheeses. Cornmeal goes into boroña, a hard round loaf, and tortos, flatbreads, while frixuelos, thin pancakes, and rice pudding are common desserts.

The drink is sidra, a very dry natural cider made largely from acidic apples. In the sidrería an escanciador raises the bottle high above the head and pours a small amount, a culín, into a glass held below, to be drunk at once before the cider loses its sparkle; whatever is left is tipped onto the floor or into a trough at the foot of the bar.