Oviedo holds a set of buildings that exist nowhere else. When the Iberian peninsula was under Muslim rule, the small Christian kingdom of Asturias survived in the north, and between roughly 790 and 910 its kings built churches in a style that owes something to Visigothic and Byzantine models and nothing to what came after: Santa Maria del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo on the hill above the city, San Julian de los Prados below it. They predate Romanesque and are grouped as Asturian pre Romanesque, a UNESCO World Heritage listing.
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The city is also the starting point of the Camino Primitivo, the oldest pilgrimage route to Santiago, taken by Alfonso II in the ninth century. And it is in Asturias, which means green, which means rain. Pack for wet, and for the fact that the cider here is poured from arm's length above the glass and you are expected to drink it immediately.
What Makes Oviedo Different to Pack For
It rains, and the region is green because of it
Oviedo gets around 1,000 millimetres a year, spread through it, with no genuinely dry season. Summer runs 13°C to 23°C and is mild rather than hot. Winter runs 4°C to 13°C, damp and grey with occasional snow. This is the Spain that does not appear in the brochures.
A merino wool base layer for women covers most of the year here and handles damp better than cotton, which will not dry.
The pre Romanesque churches are on a hill
Santa Maria del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo sit around three kilometres from the centre and 200 metres above it, on the flank of Monte Naranco. The walk up is steady and exposed; there is a bus, and a taxi is cheap.
Cider is a participatory activity
Asturian sidra is still, sharp and poured escanciado, from a bottle held high into a glass held low, to aerate it. You get a couple of fingers at a time and drink it at once. It is done by the waiter or by a machine, and you are not expected to do it yourself.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Oviedo Packing List
Footwear
Waterproof and grippy. The old town is polished stone that is slick in the constant drizzle, and the Naranco approach is a steady climb. If you are walking any of the Camino Primitivo or into the Picos de Europa, waterproof hiking shoes are essential rather than advisable, because the Primitivo is the wettest and hilliest of the Caminos.
Clothing
Layers with a genuinely waterproof shell. An umbrella works in the city, which is what locals carry. Covered shoulders and knees for the cathedral and the pre Romanesque churches.
Oviedo is a prosperous, conservative regional capital that dresses notably well, and the evening paseo along Calle Uria is an institution.
For the rain
A packable rain jacket at minimum and something more substantial in winter. Quick drying layers, because in this humidity nothing hung up overnight will be dry by morning.
For the cider houses
Nothing you mind splashing. Escanciar spills, deliberately: the overflow goes on the floor, which is sawdusted for the purpose, and your shoes will catch some.
Practical
Cash for the smaller chigres, the cider houses. A pilgrim credential if you are walking the Primitivo, obtainable at the cathedral. A wide brim sun hat is rarely needed, which tells you something about the place.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Santa Maria del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo
Naranco was built around 848 as a royal hall, probably a palace rather than a church, with a barrel vaulted upper storey, external buttresses and carved medallions. Lillo, a hundred metres away, survives only in part, its nave having collapsed.
Practically: guided visits only at set times and both are cold inside, with limited lighting. Closed on Mondays and for lunch. The setting on the hillside with the city below is half the experience, and it is frequently in drizzle, which suits them.
The cathedral and the Camara Santa
A Gothic cathedral with a single asymmetric tower, built around a ninth century chapel, the Camara Santa, which holds the Cross of the Angels and the Cross of Victory, the symbols of Asturias, and a reliquary chest. The chapel was dynamited in 1934 during the Asturian miners' revolt and reconstructed.
Practically: the Camara Santa is a separate ticket and is small, dim and cold. Covered shoulders and knees.
The old town and the sculptures
The pedestrianised centre around the cathedral and the Plaza del Fontan, with a Sunday market, and something over a hundred public sculptures scattered through the city, including a Botero and the much photographed bronze of Woody Allen, who set part of a film here.
Practically: flat, compact and walkable. Wet stone. The Museo de Bellas Artes is free and genuinely good, with El Greco and Goya.
The cider houses
Calle Gascona is the sidrería street, a run of chigres serving cider by the bottle with cabrales cheese, fabada and grilled seafood.
Practically: busy from around nine. A bottle is shared and poured a little at a time, and you order food alongside as a matter of course. Standing or long tables; this is not a quiet dinner.
The 1934 revolution
In October 1934 the Asturian miners rose against the incoming right wing government, took Oviedo, and held it for around two weeks. The rising was put down by troops brought from Morocco under Franco's direction, with something in the region of a thousand to two thousand killed and mass arrests after. It is often read as a rehearsal for the civil war that began eighteen months later.
The fighting destroyed the university library, damaged the cathedral and dynamited the Camara Santa. Much of what you see in the centre is therefore reconstruction, carefully done, and the chapel's ninth century crosses survived only because the fragments were recovered from the rubble.
Practically: the reconstruction is not signposted and most visitors never learn why a ninth century chapel has twentieth century masonry. The university building and the cathedral both carry the history if you look. Asturias remains politically distinct from much of Spain and the mining past is a live subject rather than a closed one.
Out of the city
Gijon on the coast is half an hour. The Picos de Europa are ninety minutes east, with the Covadonga lakes and the Cares gorge. The Camino Primitivo heads west into the hills immediately.
What Not to Bring
Leave the assumption that Spain means sun. Asturias is green because it is wet, and a week here without rain would be unusual.
Leave a showerproof jacket. Leave delicate shoes for polished wet stone and for a sawdusted cider house floor. Leave the expectation of an early dinner.
Essential Resources for Women in Oviedo
Emergency numbers in Spain: 112 is the single emergency number and handles police, ambulance and fire, with English speaking operators. The national police are on 091 and the local police on 092. The Guardia Civil, on 062, covers the Camino between towns and the mountains.
Tourist support: Spain has a dedicated service for foreign visitors reporting crime, the SATE, and the national police station in Oviedo takes reports from visitors. A report can be started by phone on 902 102 112 in English, but a stolen passport needs the denuncia signed in person.
US Embassy and consulate: the embassy is in Madrid at Calle de Serrano 75, telephone +34 91 587 2200, at es.usembassy.gov, around four hours away by train. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias in Oviedo is a large modern teaching hospital with a 24 hour urgencias department and is among the better equipped in northern Spain. EU visitors should carry the European Health Insurance Card; everyone else needs travel insurance, and check it covers hiking if the Picos or the Camino are on your list.
Official health authority: the Spanish Ministry of Health at sanidad.gob.es.
US State Department travel advisory for Spain: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Spain: entry requirements, safety and health guidance.
Official tourism authority: Turespana at spain.info, with the Asturias regional board at turismoasturias.es for the pre Romanesque visiting times, which are restricted and guided, and for Camino Primitivo stage information.
Solo women safety assessment: Oviedo is a very safe and comfortable city for a woman travelling alone, and one of the easiest in Spain. It is a prosperous regional capital of around 220,000 people with a university, a compact pedestrianised centre, low crime and an evening street life that is busy and sociable without being rowdy. Violent crime against visitors is rare, street harassment is uncommon, and eating and drinking alone is entirely normal, including standing in a sidrería, where a solo customer is unremarkable and the shared bottle format tends to draw you into conversation. Petty theft is at a low level, concentrated around the station. The practical hazards are weather related: constant damp makes the polished stone of the old town slippery and falls are the commonest minor injury, and the Naranco path is exposed in bad weather. If you are walking the Camino Primitivo, it is the hardest of the routes, crossing the Asturian hills with long stages between villages, frequent rain and mist that can reduce visibility sharply on the high sections; women walk it alone in numbers, but carry water and a shell, check the stage lengths, and be aware that it is considerably more demanding than the Frances.
Reading On
Oviedo holds architecture that exists nowhere else in Europe and is the start of the oldest route to Santiago, which makes it a better first stop in green Spain than its profile suggests. The Spain travel guide for women is the parent for the whole country and covers the regions, the seasons and the trains, and the Spain packing list for women covers a multi region trip. Along the north coast, the Bilbao packing list for women and the San Sebastian travel guide for women cover the Basque country east. West, the Camino de Santiago travel guide for women covers the routes and the Santiago de Compostela packing list for women the destination. South over the mountains, the Leon packing list for women and the Salamanca packing list for women reach the meseta. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why merino is the right layer in a place that is permanently damp and rarely warm, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
