Asturias & Cantabria

The limestone of the Cantabrian coast holds some of the richest Ice Age art in the world. The Altamira cave near Santillana del Mar, painted with bison around 36,000 to 13,000 years ago, was found in the 1860s and recognised in 1879, when Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola's daughter María noticed the ceiling; it heads a UNESCO World Heritage listing that includes El Castillo at Puente Viesgo and Tito Bustillo at Ribadesella. The Iron Age Cantabri and Astures resisted Rome until Augustus's Cantabrian Wars ended in 19 BC.

After the Muslim conquest, a Visigothic noble, Pelayo, defeated a Muslim force at Covadonga around 722, an event later treated as the start of the Reconquista. The Kingdom of Asturias that grew from it moved its court to Oviedo under Alfonso II, and its pre-Romanesque churches survive. Since 1388 the heir to the Spanish throne has held the title Prince or Princess of Asturias. Cantabria became Castile's outlet to the sea, and Santander's port shipped Castilian wool.

In the 19th century Asturias became Spain's coal and steel region, and its miners led the 1934 revolution, suppressed by the army. Emigrants to the Americas, the indianos, came home rich and built palaces in coastal towns, above all at Comillas. The royal family summered in Santander's Magdalena Palace, and a great fire in 1941 destroyed much of the city's old centre. The closure of most mines since the 1980s has reshaped the Asturian valleys.

Asturians have a strong regional identity. Asturian, or bable, is protected and taught in schools but not co-official, and many people mix it into their Spanish; Cantabria has its own mountain speech. The Asturian coal valleys kept a left-wing, trade-union culture, while Cantabria is more conservative.

Cider is a ritual in Asturias: in a sidrería the waiter pours it from a bottle held high above the head into a glass held low, to aerate it, and each short pour is drunk in one go. The Asturian bagpipe, the gaita, leads processions and folk music. The shrine of Covadonga, with its Holy Cave and the Virgin known as La Santina, is the spiritual heart of Asturias.

Cantabria's Pas valleys are home to the pasiegos, cattle-herders who moved between stone huts, the cabañas pasiegas, with the seasons. Festivals include the Descenso del Sella, a mass canoe race from Arriondas to Ribadesella in August, the Battle of Flowers in Laredo, La Folía at San Vicente de la Barquera, and, in Oviedo, the Princess of Asturias Awards each October.

About a million people live in Asturias and about 590,000 in Cantabria. In Asturias, Gijón is the largest city with about 270,000 people and Oviedo, the capital, has about 220,000, with Avilés the third; together they form a central urban triangle. Santander has about 170,000 and Torrelavega about 50,000.

The economy has shifted from coal to services, tourism and food. Steel is still made at Avilés and Gijón, and Gijón's port is a major one, but the mining valleys of the Nalón and Caudal have lost jobs and people. Dairy farming dominates the green hills, with a large dairy industry and cheese making. Santander is the home of Banco Santander, now a global bank.

Both communities have ageing populations, and young people often leave for Madrid. Life is sociable: evenings in the sidrerías, weekends walking in the mountains or at the beach, and summer filling up with visitors from the hot interior of Spain.

Asturian food is hearty mountain fare. Fabada asturiana, a stew of large white beans with chorizo, morcilla blood sausage and pork, is the emblematic dish, and cachopo, two breaded veal fillets sandwiching ham and cheese, is a popular favourite. Asturias makes many cheeses: Cabrales, a strong blue cheese matured in mountain caves, Gamonéu, and the crumbly Afuega'l pitu. Sweets include arroz con leche, rice pudding with a caramelised top, frixuelos, thin crêpes, and casadielles, walnut-filled pastries. Sidra natural, still cider, is the drink.

Cantabria's coast is known for Santoña's anchovies, cured in salt and packed in oil. Cocido montañés is a stew of beans, cabbage and pork, and rabas, fried squid strips, are the tapa of Santander's bars. From the Pas valleys come sobaos pasiegos, buttery sponge cakes, and quesada pasiega, a set curd cake, while the Liébana valley near Potes makes small cheeses, the quesucos, and orujo, a grape spirit.

Local meat comes from mountain cattle, and both coasts sell fresh hake, sardines and sea bream.

The Picos de Europa National Park, shared with Castile and León, is the region's natural centrepiece. On the Asturian side, Covadonga has its basilica and Holy Cave, and a mountain road climbs to the glacial lakes of Enol and Ercina; the Cares gorge path runs from Poncebos, and a funicular reaches the village of Bulnes beneath the Naranjo de Bulnes, the massif's best-known peak. On the Cantabrian side, the Fuente Dé cable car lifts visitors onto the high limestone plateau, and Potes and the monastery of Santo Toribio lie in the Liébana valley.

Oviedo has its cathedral and the pre-Romanesque churches of Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gijón has the old fishermen's quarter of Cimadevilla and the San Lorenzo beach, and Avilés the Niemeyer Centre. The coast offers Cudillero's houses stacked above the harbour, Llanes, and Ribadesella with the Tito Bustillo cave.

Santander curves around its bay, from the Magdalena Palace and the Sardinero beaches to Renzo Piano's Centro Botín. Santillana del Mar keeps its medieval streets and Romanesque collegiate church; beside it, the Altamira cave is closed to most visitors, but its museum holds a full-scale replica. Comillas has Gaudí's El Capricho, the Sobrellano Palace and the Pontifical University building, and the painted cave of El Castillo lies at Puente Viesgo.