Old Town and the Basilica of Santa María del Concejo

Llanes's old town, declared a historic-artistic site, preserves the northern stretch of the 13th-century wall and the defensive tower. The route passes the Posada Herrera palace, today a cultural centre, and ends at the basilica of Santa María del Concejo, built between the 13th and 15th centuries, with a Plateresque altarpiece inside.

The wall and the tower

The wall was built in the 13th century, after Alfonso IX granted the town its charter. According to the town council, it had a perimeter of about 840 metres, a quadrangular shape, a thickness of a metre and a half and four gates. Today the north section is preserved whole, best seen from Sablón beach, along with scattered remains built into later houses. In the plaza de Santa Ana, black paving slabs mark where the wall ran, demolished in 1870, and the site of the old San Nicolás gate.

The tower, also 13th century, is a circular limestone rubble tower that served as a defence, then as a prison and later as a tourist office. It has been a national monument since 1876.

The basilica

It is on the plaza de Cristo Rey, almost in the centre of the walled enclosure. It is Gothic, begun in 1240 and inaugurated in 1480, on an earlier church of which the paired windows of the west facade remain. Look at the two doorways: the older one, on the south-west corner, with seven archivolts and capitals with animals, and the main one, on the south, with five archivolts over six columns on each side.

Inside it has three naves with rib vaults. The main altarpiece, from the 16th century, is, according to the town council, the best example of sculpture and painting of the early Renaissance, with Plateresque motifs: it was being made when Charles V passed through in 1517. Its six panels tell the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration, the disputation with the doctors and the coronation of Mary. It was built by the townspeople and remains the patronage of the town, not of the clergy. It was named a minor basilica in 1973. No tourist visiting hours are published: it opens for worship, so ask at the tourist office.

A one-hour walk

Beside the basilica is the Posada Herrera palace, from the late 17th and early 18th century, today the Municipal Cultural Centre and archive; to its left, the ruins of the palace of the Dukes of Estrada, burned in 1809, and behind the apse, the Cercáu house, from 1597. On the calle Mayor is the house of Juan Pariente, where Charles I slept on 26 and 27 September 1517. It ends at the plaza de Santa Ana, with the sailors' chapel, from the 15th century, and the Gastañaga palace.

Everything is done on foot and self-guided in an hour. From here, go down to the port to see the Memory Cubes or climb up to the San Pedro walk.