Things to Do in Avilés

In this tour we'll discover the history of a vibrant city with a seafaring and exploring past. A place where the modern and the old come together. Explore its medieval trading past, learn about some of its most notable citizens, walk down its medieval streets and discover how its modern and industrial history has shaped it. The tour takes around 2 hours and 2:30 hours and comfortable clothing and walking shoes are recommended.

The tour starts at Parque del Muelle (the Docks Park), meeting by the fountain on the southern edge of the park (opposite the large statue at the tip). Here, we’ll explore the history of the park and the Avilés estuary, gaining an overview of the city’s industrial past and its most iconic modern building—while meeting one very important avilesino. 

From there, we head into Sabugo, once a humble fishing village, today one of the city’s most atmospheric neighborhoods. We’ll visit its historic streets and churches and learn about another key local figure before crossing into the medieval heart of Avilés.
 

In the old town, you’ll walk through some of the city’s oldest streets and discover what life was like during Avilés’ mercantile heyday. The tour continues into the baroque expansion of the city, where we’ll see the city hall and other important civic buildings. 

We’ll then pass by a former medieval monastery and walk along one of Avilés’ most emblematic streets before finishing in Parque Ferrera, considered one of the most beautiful parks in Asturias—and the perfect place to relax after exploring the city. 

Avilés preserves a Historic Center that surprises those who visit it. Its millennial origins date back to the Middle Ages, when it received the charter that elevated the population to the category of a town, it was walled, and it experienced its moment of maximum splendor.

In this free tour, we will explore the center of Avilés, with its typical arcades, along with the Sabugo neighborhood, the only area outside the walls that existed in the Middle Ages in the town.

We will get to know not only medieval Avilés but also its Baroque and Modernist periods of splendor.

The guided tour will begin at the San Francisco fountain, to delve into the streets that were walled centuries ago. We will see the importance of its port for Avilés and will be able to admire emblematic buildings such as the Valdecarzana Palace, the Church of the Franciscan Fathers, and the Camposagrado Palace.

We will continue to Sabugo, the old fishermen's neighborhood. Sabugo was separated for centuries from walled Avilés by a large marsh, where the Muelle Park is located today. There, we will delve into the history of the only suburb that existed outside the walled area in the Middle Ages, its streets, and its two churches.

The tour will end near the Town Hall Square, on Galiana Street, where we will talk about the Baroque expansion and some of the constructions that marked Avilés in the 17th century: the Town Hall, the Ferrera Palace, and the Julián Orbón Music Conservatory.

Note: this tour requires a minimum of 2 people to proceed. 

With this free tour through the historic center of the city of Avilés you will discover all the monuments that this land of discoverers, marine and medieval, hides. The Free Tour will begin with the sculpture of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, a military man who played a fundamental role in North America in the 17th century. From here, we begin to learn more about the history and curiosities of this city and we will see monuments such as the Niemeyer Center or the Sabugo Church located in the old fishing district. Near this neighborhood we will visit the popularly known as the Cathedral of Avilés: the church of Santo Tomás. We continue with the Avilés estuary where we will tell you the importance that this area had during the Second Industrial Revolution as well as being able to enjoy its incredible views. We will continue to Plaza de España where we can contemplate the Town Hall and the Ferrera Palace, one of the oldest Baroque buildings in Asturias. To finish we will visit the Balsera Palace, the parish of San Nicolás de Bari, the Camposagrado palace or the church of the Franciscan Fathers. The tour will end at the meeting point in the Parque del Muelle.

Aviles. millennial city. A city where original streets and houses are still preserved where painters, Great Discoverers of the New World or poets of the Great Court of Madrid del Habsburg walked.

I will tell you the popular names and their meanings, including curious anecdotes and stories such as the la'Chichilana cafe or the Bombé promenades. and the curious story of an "influencer" seal in the villa
We will discover palaces with ghosts or churches that "exchanged the saints" or that are "upside down ". A street that turns into a river once a year... a thousand anecdotes and stories that make it the city with the most columns in Spain (almost 4 km of arcades).

We will go from medieval streets and some buildings of that time to large modernist palaces built as residences for the industrialists who arrived from "the Americas" in the 19th century, passing through Baroque palaces and even the jewel of 21st century architecture.


During the 2 and a half hours that we will be together you will discover that Avilés is full of charming corners.

Taking the music kiosk in the Parque del Muelle as a starting point, we propose a quiet walk through the historic center of the Sabugo neighborhood, the origin of the city, and through the emblematic streets of Galiana or Rivero with their houses with the arcades that have made so singular or to contemplate the nineteenth-century Avilés and the beginning of the 20th century with its modernist architecture.

In short, everything that has given it its current character.

Think no more,

WE ARE WAITING!