How to get to Oviedo
It is the best communicated council in the entire region, through a complex network of roads and railways. Since the year 1975, the three great Asturian cities have been connected by the «Y» highway, named for its route. Asturias airport is about 35 kms. connected by fast roads.
Distances: Gijón 28 km / Avilés 30 km.
History of Oviedo
The history of the city starts from year 781 when a group of monks settled on the hill of Oveto. There they founded a monastery dedicated to San Vicente. After a while, he suffered two successive Muslim destructions (794-795) and the court was installed provisionally in Pravia. Defeated the invaders, Alfonso II chose Oviedo as the new capital of the Kingdom of Asturias (808) and it enlarged and embellished it with palaces, churches and public works, work continued by Ramiro I, Ordoño I and Alfonso III, his successors on the throne.
From the eleventh century the cult of the reliquary of San Salvador began a process of exterior projection that culminated in the twelfth century with the appointment of Oviedo as a center of pilgrimage. The centuries XII and XIII are of growth and commercial development and the increasing strength that will attract, for example, to an important colony of merchants and artisans Franco-Gascons. Thus, in the 14th century, the construction of the gothic cathedral, its completion was in the year 1550. The growth of the city is done both intramural and extramural.
And Oviedo continued a journey that, like all life, conjugated lights and shadows: the complete city in 1500 a general sewerage network, a terrible fire destroys in 1521 a good part of the city intramuros, it is inaugurated University that Fernando Valdés Salas (1608) founded one day of San Mateo, the Casa de Comedias del Fontán roofs a lot of theater passion in 1666, Fray Benito Jerónimo Feijoo moves to Oviedo (1709) and from the monastery of San Vicente will announce your wisdom
Oviedo will be the 9 of May of 1808 the first capital to declare war on Napoleon and the General Board of the Principality stands as the maximum representative of popular sovereignty, the French were expelled at 1812.
In another order of things, the street Uría (1874) begins and with it the main artery of the bourgeois expansion, the Campoamor Theater raises its ample and luxurious curtain in 1892, the urban center moves towards Uría and becomes the park the countryside of the knocked down convent of San Francisco, palaces and modernist buildings create a modern Oviedo that is opposed to the medieval ring.
Nowadays Much of the old town, declared a monumental area in 1955, is pedestrian, road traffic has been limited in the central commercial arteries, squares and buildings have been rehabilitated, fountains built ... a city to get to know by walking through its streets and squares.
Festivals and fairs in Oviedo
· Antroxu (Carnival), February.
Semana Santa Oviedo 2024
Holy Week Oviedo 2024 Events…
· The Balesquida or Tuesday of the Field
It is celebrated at the end of May or beginning of June, coinciding with the first Tuesday after Pentecost, which is a non-working day in the city. The festival dates back to the 13th century to celebrate the donation made by Balesquita Giraldez to the tailors' guild of Oviedo.
Field Tuesday Parties 2024
The celebration of the Festival…
· Cider tasting
This is the tasting of the first cider of the season, which is bottled in the months of May and June. It takes place on Gascona Street in the numerous cider houses located there.
Gascon Cider Test 2024
The XXIV Preba of the…
· Saint John, June 24th
In Oviedo, there is a great event on the night of June 23 at 00:00, with the lighting of the bonfire and the dance of the Danza Prima.
Night of San Juan Asturias 2024
There are many locations that…
· Saint Matthew, mid/late September
The patron saint festivities in Oviedo are usually ten or twelve days long, with numerous activities for all audiences.
San Mateo Festival 2024
The festivities of San Mateo…
Markets of Oviedo
· Ascension Fair, April-May
The Ascension Fair
The Ascension is a celebration deeply rooted in the Asturian capital. Its origin dates back to…
· El Fontan Market, every Sunday of the year.
El Fontán Market
One can speak of El Fontán as the epicenter of Oviedo, because walking through its streets and squares we are invaded by…
Cultural events in Oviedo
· Asturias Publishers Fair
Fair organized by the Guild of Editors of Asturias – Gremiu d'Editores d'Asturies in the central Plaza de Trascorrales, usually held at the beginning of March.
II Asturias Publishers Fair 2024
We have back …
· Opera Season
During the autumn and part of the winter, the city hosts an extensive opera programme. Great universal works are enjoyed annually at the Teatro Campoamor.
Opera Season 2024/25
During these next few months of…
· The White Night
This initiative takes place in the month of October and has grown over the years, offering a wide range of activities: exhibitions, workshops, literary events... adding up to a unique and interesting cultural offering.
White Night Oviedo 2024
Oviedo offers Saturday day…
· Vesu Festival
It is an independent music festival, but not just another independent music festival. It is characterized by the combination of established proposals, avant-garde movements and bets on new bands that will soon become a reference in our country.
Vesu Festival 2024
In this new edition in …
· Oviedo with tapas
Pinchos/tapas competition from a good number of restaurants/venues in Oviedo. Don't forget to try their cuisine, they will surely surprise you!
Oviedo of pinchos 2024
We hereby inaugurate the XIV …
· Dance Festival
In this new edition, the Campoamor Theatre Dance Festival is more faithful than ever to its creative spirit in which the diversity of schools, choreographic approaches and historical periods seeks to bring dance lovers an immense legacy that is in continuous evolution.
Oviedo Dance Festival
The Dance Festival of…
· Asturias Fashion Week
An event that welcomes international models and emerging models, a fusion in which people from Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Colombia) are present, who have taken the Oviedo brand beyond our borders. You can enjoy the design in jewelry, urban fashion, swimwear, ceremony, men's and women's fashion, and children's fashion.
Asturias Fashion Week 2024
The Philharmonic Theater hosts the…
Tourism offices
Tourist Information Office «El Escorialín».
Marquis of Santa Cruz, 1. Tel. 985 22 75 86.
Text: © Ramón Molleda for asturias.com
