Somiedo, Asturias: municipality guide
Somiedo is a municipality in central Asturias, in the south-west of the region, entirely included in the Somiedo Natural Park and declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Its capital is Pola de Somiedo. With 1,031 inhabitants and 291.38 km², it is a land of bears, brañas (high mountain pastures) and teitos (thatched huts), one of the best-preserved mountain landscapes in Spain.
What to see in Somiedo
The whole municipality is a natural park, declared in 1988, and a Biosphere Reserve since 2000. Its hallmark is its glacial lakes: the Lago del Valle, at about 1,550 metres of altitude, and the Saliencia lakes, three chained lakes by the Farrapona pass. It is the habitat of the Cantabrian brown bear —the Brown Bear Foundation is headquartered here—, the capercaillie, the wolf and the chamois.
The pastoral culture lives on in the brañas and the teitos, the huts with vegetal roofs where people and livestock lived together: the most famous are La Pornacal, in Villar de Vildas, and Mumian. The vaqueiros de alzada, transhumant by tradition, are the ethnographic soul of the municipality. In the capital, the Park Reception and Interpretation Centre, the Casa del Oso (Bear House) and the Ecomuseo, with sites in Pola and Veigas, explain this way of life.
Villar de Vildas, Exemplary Village of Asturias and gateway to the braña of La Pornacal, and villages such as Perlunes or La Peral, with the Príncipe viewpoint, complete the route. Roman history left the Camín Real de la Mesa, an ancient Roman road and historic royal way (GR 101) that crosses the municipality: it is a historic route, not an official Camino de Santiago. Álvaro Flórez Estrada, Enlightenment thinker and economist, was born in Pola de Somiedo.
Getting there
The main access is the AS-227 regional road from Cornellana, which enters the municipality through the Pigüeña valley. To the south, the Somiedo pass connects with the province of León. It is high-mountain territory: snow remains for much of the winter.
Map of the municipality of Somiedo: the capital, in gold. Data © OpenStreetMap (ODbL).
Festivals and gastronomy
The festivals are concentrated in summer, once the agricultural tasks are over: San Antonio in Valcárcel, Valle de Lago, Villarín and La Rebollada (June); El Carmen in La Riera, Villar de Vildas and Caunedo (August and September); Nuestra Señora in Corés and Pola de Somiedo (September); and El Rosario in Clavillas, Gúa, Santullano and Valle de Lago (October). On the table, local livestock meat rules —the Asturiana de los Valles breed grazes here— along with the livestock fairs, the traditional one for this breed among the most outstanding.
Municipality facts
Coat of arms: Wikimedia Commons / Erlenmeyer (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Capital: Pola de Somiedo
- Population: 1,031 inhabitants (INE 2025)
- Area: 291.38 km²
- Zone: Central
- Demonym: somedano, -na
- Town Hall: Plaza del Ayuntamiento, 1, 33840 Pola de Somiedo. Tel. +34 985 76 36 52
Neighbouring municipalities
- Belmonte de Miranda
- Teverga
- Tineo
- Cangas del Narcea
- Villablino (León, Castile and León)
- Cabrillanes (León, Castile and León)
- San Emiliano (León, Castile and León)
Useful links
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See it on the interactive map: The 78 municipalities of Asturias
