Asturias – Luarca

The first time I was in Luarca was when I came back form my Camino to Oviedo by bus. I looked up and realised that we’re in a very nice place. In fact I liked it so much that I asked somebody on the bus to tell me the name of the town. One of my students was also from here and we talked a lot about the town. We drove by it on our way to Galicia and stopped to look around.

Luarca is a small seaside fishing town hidden away on the Asturian coast. It is divided by a river and has several bridges and a lovely viaduct to connect the two sides. It has a few beaches and a port with a lovely promenade.

Interestingly the place where you are suggested to see the town is the Cemeterio, the Cemetery. It is situated in a high position, next to the watchtower and it is one of the oldest and probably the most beautiful on the Cantabrian Coast. There are many famous people buried here, amongst them Severo Ochoa who received a Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology in 1959. Next to the cemetery is the chapel of Atalaya both overlooking the sea.

The view from the cemetery shows you the port and the beaches of Luarca.

On the other side you see the Asturian coast line and the storm that was slowly building and coming closer and closer.

To the right there’s a little beach that is protected by almost vertical cliffs. Right on the edge on the top of the cliff there’s this little house that looks like it’s going to fall in the water in any minute.

In the place of the lighthouse there used to be a watchtower that was an important defensive fort between the 16^th and the 18^th century.

We didn’t have any more time left as the storm caught up with us. On our way out we saw many prilgrims as Luarca is an important stop on the Camino de Santiago, situated on the Camino del Norte.