Towns of Asturias, Spain: Pedroveya

Pedroveya is a peaceful Asturian village, located in the vicinity of a legendary world, traditionally enchanted: the Desfiladero de las Xanas. Belonging to the council of Quirós (1), adjoins the councils of Morcín, Proaza and Santo Adriano, in what could deservedly be called a small natural paradise, composed of mountains, forests and meadows of a truly dazzling green.

Pedroveya, however characteristic feature of many and many small towns of our peninsular geography, highlights that solid rural architecture that is nourished by stone, tile - when not the slate, abundant in the Principality - and wood to form small nuclei unifamiliares, that are grouped, like a pineapple, around a central square in which it stands out, worthy survivors of an ancestral world, the sublime vision of several granaries.

On the verge of some of these -really, it is a pleasure to see them with the additional coloring provided by the strings of garlic, chilli peppers and traditional corn ears, hanging as trophies from the side walls, as it is also, observing the placidity with which an old German shepherd naps on the steps - there is a family house, which offers accommodation and homemade food to the stranger.

Well inside, or in the shadow of the granaries, it is not uncommon to see the influx of diners, especially in the summer months. Here I met up again with the Asturian pot and with a dessert made with egg, milk and sugar - the fries - that reminded me again of those happy days of childhood in the house of the paternal grandparents, in Boronas de Otur, Luarca.

Crossing the square and the granaries, there is a path that, going towards the edges of the town, descends further towards some gorges that become imposing as the distance fades away. After crossing a few meters of forest, the road clears, on both sides, offering the immeasurable view of grasslands that resemble Caribbean waves because of the emerald color of the grass that covers them.

On the left, with the rectangular pedestal licked by it, an altar or altar is distinguished, possibly denoting the place where they were practiced in times, pre-Christian cults later adapted by the first Christian evangelizers, now fulfilling the function of altars from which the fields and the cattle are blessed, as well as the meeting point of the joyous pilgrimages.

On the right side, and in front, the praderilla that surrounds the church of San Antonio, like many important churches of the Way of the Stars, becomes the meeting point of the hikers that fall exhausted on it, after a hard but intense stage.
In this case, of course, the stage in question is none other than the route of the Enchanted Gorge of the Xanas, which extends to the neighboring council of Santo Adriano, ending at the confluence of the so-called Senda del Oso, and of course, in the vicinity of Tuñón.

Localizable, likewise, in the vicinity, is the famous Puerto Ventana, which, according to tradition, passed the holy relics brought from Jerusalem by Santo Toribio, on the way to the Monsacro, place of ancestral worship, in which they were deposited and put away from the Muslim robbery.

Notes:

(1) Los Quirós, one of the oldest and preeminent families in Asturias. Timely is to remember the popular saying that says:
Before God was God
and the sun would hit these cliffs,
the Quirós were Quirós
and the Garrido, Garrido.

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