Oviedo is located in the center of Asturias, in the very North of Spain. We’re talking about a medium town with 200.000 inhabitants which is 45 minutes close to the sea and the top cape in Asturias, the Cabo Peñas. The city remains of an old town, with baroque style in its buildings. As a matter of fact, a very well known celebrity fell in love with this city when he visited Asturias for the first time to pick up his Premio PrÃncipe de Asturias de Artes…Guess who’s him? Yes, in 2002 Woody Allen said about Oviedo, “a delicious, exotic, beautiful, clean, pleasant, tranquil and pedestrianised city, like it didn’t belong to this world, like it didn’t exist…Oviedo is like a fairy tale”. This city felt so grateful for his words that placed an Allen’s statue in the main street, calle UrÃa.
He wasn’t wrong: nearly in front of his statue there is an ancient park belonging to a monastery in past times. This Parque San Francisco contains a wide variety of trees, as old as the monastery, besides a small lake with turtles, ducks, white swans and majestic peacocks. Fortunately this is not the only big park of Oviedo, we can’t forget the huge green Parque de Invierno for a sympathetic reason: one of its paths drives us to the Senda del Oso, where you can find two little bears and the story of why Asturias is taking care of them as their mother. Plus, if we continue this way we will arrive to a small mountain called Naranco, and if we climb it we will reach the summit and find a Christ sculpture that doesn’t have why to be jealous of the Rio de Janeiro one.
As must visit buildings, Oviedo has a special cathedral with only one tower in the old town of the city. Also, there are an Auditorium and a Theatre for big events and concerts. No matter what point you look at it from, Oviedo is certainly a place worth visiting!
Oviedo photos: Rita Alvarez Tudela, Rayporres, chusa beisa camada, nextors.
