Ribadedeva, Asturias: municipality guide

Ribadedeva is the municipality at the eastern tip of Asturias: 1,693 inhabitants on 35.66 km² between the Cantabrian Sea and the river Deva, which separates it from Cantabria. Its capital, Colombres, preserves the largest and best-preserved ensemble of indiano architecture in all of Asturias, and its cliffs hold one of the jewels of European Palaeolithic art: the Pindal cave.

Things to see in Ribadedeva

In Pimiango, next to the San Emeterio lighthouse, opens the Pindal cave, discovered in 1908 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its walls preserve paintings and engravings of bison, horses, deer and mammoths that form one of the greatest displays of Asturian rock art. The nearby monastery of Santa María de Tina, now in ruins, keeps alive the memory of an area linked since time immemorial to the Camino de Santiago de la Costa.

Entrance to the Pindal cave, in Pimiango, with rock art declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. — Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Falconaumanni (CC BY 3.0)

The capital, Colombres, is the great indiano town of eastern Asturias: fortunes made in the Americas in the late 19th century raised palaces and mansions that today form the region’s most complete indiano ensemble. Its emblem is the Quinta Guadalupe (1905), home to the Archivo de Indianos-Museo de la Emigración (Emigration Museum). Colombres was named Exemplary Town of Asturias in 2015.

The Quinta Guadalupe, in Colombres, home to the Archivo de Indianos-Museo de la Emigración. — Photo: Wikimedia Commons / RuLf (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The municipality’s coastline adds up to 9.5 km of cliffs between the Santiuste estuary and the Tina Mayor estuary, with La Franca beach as its best-known stretch of sand. Inland, the Torre de Noriega (13th century) recalls medieval seigniorial power, and from the Pimiango viewpoint the picu Urriellu and the vastness of the Cantabrian Sea can be seen at once. The Camino del Norte crosses the municipality: the stage from Unquera (Cantabria) passes through Colombres and La Franca on its way to Llanes.

Getting there

The Cantabrian motorway (A-8) and the N-634 (km 281-285) cross the municipality, connecting it with Santander and with Oviedo, 133 km from Colombres. The Tina Mayor estuary and the Unquera bridge mark the entrance to Asturias from Cantabria.

Map of the municipality of Ribadedeva: the capital, in gold. Data © OpenStreetMap (ODbL).

Festivals and gastronomy

The festive calendar begins in March with San Emeterio in Pimiango and continues in July with El Carmen in Bustio. August concentrates the big events: Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in La Franca (2 August), Las Nieves in El Peral (5 August) and, in Colombres, La Sacramental with the Festival Folclórico Nacional; San Lorenzo is celebrated in Noriega from 9 to 11 August, and San Andrés closes the year in La Franca on 30 November. At the table, the star is Deva salmon, from one of the region’s great salmon rivers.