Cudillero

Cudillero's history is bound up with the neighbouring municipality of Pravia for most of its existence, which makes it hard to trace as a separate place until it gained its own municipal identity much later. The earliest signs of human activity in the area come from the pre-Roman Iron Age, in the form of two hillforts — La Garita and La Cavona — plus a more recently discovered site at Gurión. Roman-era remains are sparse.

The port itself dates back to the medieval period. The oldest surviving document to mention Cudillero is a 1285 deed in which Arias González de Valdés donated a plot at the port to the monastery of Obona, in Tineo, for selling bread, along with a sea-facing cabin.

Through the late Middle Ages Cudillero remained a small fishing port under Pravia's political control. By the early modern period it had grown into Asturias's main fishing centre, and its inhabitants funded the construction of the church of San Pedro. A harbour pier was built, and a fort — the Castillo de San Juan — was raised to defend against English raids. Residents later offered 1,000 doubloons to break away from Pravia's jurisdiction, but full municipal independence did not come until around a century after that. The harbour was eventually expanded and modernised, with works completing in the 1980s.

Cudillero's most remarkable building lies slightly outside the port itself. The Quinta de Selgas is a 19th-century country house and garden, designed by its owner Fortunato Selgas, now run as a museum by the Fundación Selgas-Fagalde and receiving around 24,000 visitors a year. Its interior holds an extraordinary art collection including what is considered the earliest known painting by Goya — *Aníbal vencedor contempla por primera vez Italia desde los Alpes* — alongside an Assumption of the Virgin by El Greco, and works by Luis de Morales, Luca Giordano, Corrado Giaquinto, and small-scale models by Vicente Carducho for the great painting cycle of the Cartuja de El Paular near Madrid. The gardens mix formal French layout with a wilder, more picturesque section.

In the town, the Gothic church of San Pedro was built and paid for by local people, burned during the Civil War, rebuilt, and more recently restored. The Capilla del Humilladero is also Gothic, heavily remodelled, with a square plan, buttresses, and a retablo from the 16th or 17th century.

Further out, the church of Santa María de Soto de Luiña is a listed Monumento Histórico Artístico with a single nave, double transept, semicircular apse, and a square tower with feline gargoyles. The adjoining rectory, also listed, has been converted into a cultural centre and museum holding sculpture, sacred objects, and goldsmithery. Selgas also designed the local schools at El Pito and the church of Jesús Nazareno, whose altar contains a pre-Romanesque stone piece from the church of Santianes de Pravia.

By road from the central meseta, take the A-66 to Asturias, then follow signs for Avilés-La Coruña on the autovía, joining the N-632 towards Ribadeo; the turn-off for Cudillero is about 8 km along that road. Enter via the second turn-off (Puerto), not the first (El Pito). The main car park is at the harbour.

Train and Alsa bus services operate to the area, and the regional airport is 15 km away. The tourism office is in the port zone, near the harbour car park; phone 985 59 13 77 or visit cudillero.org. For food, local specialities include *curadillo* (a shark-family fish dried for six months then stewed), *merluza del pincho* (line-caught hake), *pixín* (monkfish), percebes, centollos, and oricios.

Restaurante el Café in Oviñana, on the road towards Cabo Vidio, serves local fish and seafood; phone 985 597 108.