Pola de Somiedo
A provisioning stop rather than a sight. Buy the smoked cheese and drive on.
The only shop in Somiedo, and the place to buy the cheese the brañas produce.
At a Glance
- — You are looking for something to look at — this is a working village on a main road
Pola de Somiedo is the administrative village of the municipality: a small, plain place on the main road with the town hall, a couple of bars, a shop and a market on certain days, where the valley's cheese and meat are sold. It is not pretty in the way the villages off the road are, and most visitors drive through it on the way to La Peral or the lakes. Stop anyway: the bakeries sell the local cheese — a hard, smoked, blue-veined wheel made from cows and sheep milk — and the butchers sell chorizo and cecina from animals that grazed these pastures. It is the one place in Somiedo where you can buy provisions.
How it got here
Somiedo functioned as a traditional territory of transhumance where shepherds moved livestock between summer mountain pastures and lowland meadows. The council of Somiedo appears in royal records as part of the wider Asturian mountain economy long defined by communal land rights and seasonal migration. The village of Pola de Somiedo acted as the administrative center for these scattered hamlets through the centuries. Its importance grew from its position as a central point for collecting taxes and coordinating the movement of herds across the rugged mountain passes. The architecture of the region reflects these agrarian demands rather than the presence of castles or monasteries found elsewhere in the kingdom.
Where it sits
The valley floors sit low beneath sharp limestone peaks and glacial hollows that drain into the Saliencia and Lago del Valle basins. Snow often blocks the high mountain tracks well into the spring months leaving the valley quiet for long periods. Deep green forests of beech and oak cover the slopes below the tree line where bears and wolves once roamed in greater numbers. A single road cuts through the center of the village serving as the primary link to the outside world. Silence returns to the meadows as soon as the summer travelers move toward the high lakes.
What to eat and drink
The local diet relies on the hard, smoked, blue-veined cheese made from cow and sheep milk which takes its name from the surrounding pastures. Butchers sell cecina, a cured beef product, and chorizo made from animals raised on the local grass. The kitchen relies on these durable goods alongside legumes and root vegetables. Stews known as fabada asturiana, made with large white faba beans and pork products, provide the necessary calories for the cold winters. Cider, pressed from local apples and poured from a height to aerate the liquid, serves as the standard drink with any meal.
Asturias: the whole region
Asturias fits a whole coast, a mountain range and a serious kitchen into a province you can cross in two hours. Cider poured from a height, blue cheese, working fishing ports, and the Picos de Europa standing over all of it. It rains often…
Minimum 4 days · better 7 days · deep 10-12 days
In Asturias
In Asturias
In Asturias
Logistics are verified only. We don't publish schedules we haven't confirmed.
Experiences worth booking ahead
- Private Tour from Oviedo to Covadonga, lakes, & sailors villages4.9 (67)7 hrsFrom €400
- One day tour CUDILLERO Vidio Cape Cathedrals Beach Luarca4.9 (7)6 hrsFrom €510
- Northern Spain Tour in private 8 - 15 days Spanish English5.0 (5)240 hrsFrom €450
- Somiedo Biosphere Reserve and its Villages - Tour from Oviedo5.0 (2)10 hrsFrom €80
Spain Field Guide may earn a commission when you book through selected links. Recommendations are editorial and independent of commission.
Ready to build Pola de Somiedo into a trip?
You've found a place worth going. When you're ready to turn discovery into an itinerary, Travel Itinerary Co picks up where the Field Guide leaves off — with your saved places already in hand.
Build this into a tripContinues on Travel Itinerary Co
Spain Field Guide may earn a commission when you book through selected links. Recommendations are editorial and independent of commission.