Archives » Avilés

Ferrera Park, Avilés, and Seaside Sculpture

Thee is a lovely park in Avilés, called Ferrera Park. It was well used by people strolling or jogging and had that essential for a park – water; in this case a pond by which there were not only geese but a black swan.

Black Swan, Ferrera Park, Avilés

Off to the side was a nice parterre garden:-

Garden in Ferrera Fark

Complete with fountain:-
garden in park 7 fountain

You know you’re not in Fife anymore when you see a tree like this:-

Tree, Ferrera Park, Avilés

Just behind the parterre garden was this painted building:-

Painted Building by Ferrera Park, Avilés

As the SS Black Watch left we passed this striking sculpture. It’s by Benjamín Menéndez and is called “Avilés”:-

Sculpture, Avilés

Face-on view:-

"Avilés"

This interesting rock formation sticks out into the Ría Avilés estuary:-

Rock Formation, Ría Avilés Estuary, Spain

Further out where the estuary meets the Atlantic we could see loads of surfers riding the waves into Playa San Juan de Nieva but they were a bit too far off to photograph.

Art Deco in Avilés (iv)

Corner Deco:-

Corner Deco, Avilés

More corner deco:-

More Corner Deco, Avilés

La Voe de Avilés. “Rule of three” in the middle of the balconies. Good railings; and that compass dial above the door is a neat touch:-

La Voe de Avilés

Balconied Corner Deco:-

Balconied Corner Deco, Avilés

A more moderne style. Springfield:-
Moderne/Deco, Avilés

There’s a stunning mural of a ship and castellations at upper level here. Art Deco “rule of three” on the corner. I think this was the Play House Cinema:-

Mural, Avilés

Art Deco in Avilés (iii)

Another sunburst door in Avilés:-

Another Sunburst Door, Avilés

Art Deco styling balconies:-
Blue Art Deco, Avilés

Spanish Style, almost Deco:-
Spanish Style, Almost Deco, Avilés

Some buildings in Avilés had wonderful tiling on the exterior. This was in a particularly deco style:-
Art Deco Tiling, Avilés

A more modern take on the deco style in Avilés:-

By a Roundabout, Avilés,

Verging on Deco:-
Art Deco Style in Avilés

Art Deco in Avilés (ii)

The most stunning deco/moderne building we came across in Avilés was this very rectilinear infant and primary school. Colegio de Educacion Infantil e Primaria, “Palacio Valdes”:-

Art Deco in Avilés, Education

Doorway, note canopy:-

Art Deco Doorway, Avilés

The clock tower and face is great. Note flagstaff – plus “rule of three” in windows on gable end:-

Art Deco in Avilés

Art Deco in Avilés (i)

Avilés had a fair amount of Art Deco buildings or at least ones showing some of the style.

This first one definitely qualifies though. I couldn’t fit it in my camera’s frame nor did the photos stitch together. The facade took up three photos :-

Deco Style Building, Avilés

Art Deco Style Building, Avilés.

Same Art Deco Style Building, Avilés.

Central doorway portion:-

Doorway Art Deco Building, Avilés.

The actual doors were half-sunburst in appearance. Portal 17-A:-

Complementary Sunburst Doorway, Avilés.

Portal 17-b. Note the reflection of the half-sunburst as compared to 17-A and tiled frieze above:-

Art Deco Sunburst Doorway, Avilés.

More Modern Avilés

Street in Avilés, cinema to right:-

Street in Avilés

More streets:-

Street Scene Avilés

Avilés Street

Modern Street, Avilés

The last above was just off a town square. On the opposite side of the square was a stadium, the Estadio Municipal Román Suárez Puerta, home of Real Avilés C F, now in the fourth tier of Spanish football but which has cahieved the dizzy heights of Tier 2 for a total of 13 seasons, but not since 1992, which was also the season they progressed their furthest ever in the Copa del Rey, Round 5:-

Estadio Municipal Roman Suarez Puerta, Avilés

A sign on the stand’s gable end says El Quirinal which I thought at the time was the stadium’s name but is in fact the street’s:-
Estadio Municipal Roman Suarez Puerta, Avilés

From (pedestrianised) square:-

Estadio Municipal Roman Suarez Puerta, Avilés

Industry in Avilés

In the Museo de la Historia Urbana de Avilés (Museum of the History of the Town of Avilés) there are many exhibits relating to the town’s seafaring and industrial past as an iron manufacturing town as well as demonstrating the town’s expansion.

The town still has industry as can be seen from this photo taken from the SS Black Watch in port:-

Industry in Avilés

There is a large window on an upper floor to the rear of the museum specially constructed to give a view of Avilés’s oldest building, the Church of Los Franciscanos (see a previous post.)

Below are two views of the same old street from different directions:-

An Old Street in Avilés

Street in Avilés

This was an old colonnaded market we stumbled across:-

Old Market Colonnades, Avilés

Avilés Maritime Statue

In a small park over the road from the pedestrian access to Avilés from the ship’s berth was a figure of Pedro Menendez de Avilés, a Spanish Admiral of the 16th century.

A Statue in Avilés

There were two lovely depictions of sailing ships, one on each side of the statue’s plinth:-

Avilés Statue Detail

Avilés Statue Second Cartouche

The other side had writing. Modelo de caballeros y patriotas su pueblo y la patria agradecidos le consagran este recuerdo año 1917. (Model of knights and patriots. His grateful people and country, consecrated in this memorial year 1917):-

Avilés Statue

More Avilés

Another Old Building, Avilés

Spanish style building:-

Typical Spanish Style Old Building, Avilés

Highly carved building:-

Old Building, Avilés, Decoration

Centre of above – the Camposagrado Palace, Avilés:-

Camposagrado Palace, Avilés

The town’s oldest building is the Church of Los Franciscanos:-
aoldest building 1

Oldest Building in Avilés

Avilés, Asturias, Spain

The photograph below is of a colourful bridge which is the second part of the direct pedestrian access to the Centro Niemeyer from Avilés town and which we used in the afternoon. Another (curved) walkway leading to a small park (once you cross the railway and the road on shore) lies behind. We used that one to get to the town in the morning:-

Colourful Bridge, Avilés, Asturias, Spain

View of buildings in Avilés taken from the from same vantage point as the photo above. There were men precariously at work on the roof of the building which has blue sheeting on its gable! (just to left of centre of photo.):-

Avilés From Bridge to Town

Balconies were a feature of lots of buildings in Avilés. Also spot the street sculpture in the roadway below the yellow/mustard coloured building and the mural beyond:-

Balconies, Sculpture and Gable-end Mural

As we were walking through the town a local heard us speaking English and kindly directed us to an example of what is apparently a traditional kind of Asturian building. On wooden stilts! It was the only one of its kind we saw though:-

a4 poster 1

Avilés has lots of old buildings like this church, Parroquia de San Nicolás de Bari de Avilés:-

Panorama of Church

The City Hall is much more recent though:-

City Hall, Avilés

free hit counter script