Sotres, from being isolated and without electricity to being the exemplary town of Asturias 2024 that the Kings will know

Sotres is at 1,050 meters above sea level, which makes it one of the highest towns in Asturias, and it has only 108 inhabitants. For mountaineers and hikers it is a recurring goal, a meeting place that always hovers over their next plans.

Sebastian Alvarowriter, mountaineer, historical director of the program ‘Al filo de lo impossible’, wrote about Sotres on the fifteenth anniversary of ABC Viajer. His article was titled “The small town nestled in the Picos de Europa to which I always return.

“To get there is to feel a deep shock,” he said. Sotres is a small and picturesque town nestled in the deepest part of the Picos de Europa, where I travel whenever I can to go hiking and climbing because, along with Bulnesis the starting place to begin some of the best ascents, such as Naranjo or Torrecerredo (2,650 m), the highest peak of the massif. Walk through the narrow streets of Sotres, beautiful and decorated with pots on the balconies, surrounded by meadows and rugged mountains, or chat with friends from ‘Cipriano House’ of adventures and climbs, inevitably leads me to remember the days when we slept at the foot of the car with our sleeping bags.

From the first ascent to Naranjo de Bulnes or Picu Uriellu -the most famous peak of the Picos de Europa- just turned 120 years old last summer.

Tomás Fernández López is the Head Guard of the Urriellu Refuge, an institution among mountaineers. Tomás, who has climbed the Naranjo a few times, told Francisco López-Seivanealso a writer for ABC Viajer and a deep connoisseur of Asturias, who “incredible people have passed through here, from prominent North American congressmen who, by the way, invited me to Obama’s inauguration, to the president of the Bank of America or that of the Rothschild Bankpassing through the ambassador of the United States or great Spanish businessmen, whose names I better keep to myself.

To this list we will have to add the Royal Family from this weekend.

The time of the mines

In the 19th century, when three hundred people came to work in the extraction of lead and blende (zinc sulfide), there was mining activity here. In 1978 the last exploitation was closed. Now, their income comes from livestock and the countryside, from tourism… and from Cabrales cheese. In the town there are two cheese factories under the registry of the Protected Designation of Origin of Cabrales cheese. In one of them, visitors can learn about the production of the product and its maturation in one of the traditional natural caves.

The Princess of Asturias Foundation Every year it announces the Exemplary Town of Asturias Award. In 2023, the Parishes of Arroes, Pion and Candanal, in the council of Villaviciosa, obtained this recognition. In 2022, the Parish of CadavéuValdes. In 2021, Santa María del Puertu, Somiedo. And so on until 1990, in the first edition, when San Esteban de Cuñaba was awarded, in the council of Peñamellera Baja.

In the reasoning behind the award to the Exemplary Town it is said that the defense of the environment of the Sotres Neighborhood Association has led to recovering old roads and trails that were in poor condition, such as the path of Pandebanusthe route from Collau Timón to La Caballar and the Sotres circular route, in addition to the construction of a viewpoint at one end of the town.

Sotres is still relatively far away, but it was even more so until very recently. Historically, it spent several weeks of the winter cut off due to heavy snowfall, such as that of 1888. And it was one of the last towns in Asturias to receive electric current, in 1981, more than a hundred years after its invention.

Free transportation this Saturday

Now, tourism, the coming and going of hikers, is present all year round. This Saturday, when the Kings will present the recognition to the Exemplary People, the Government of Asturias and the Cabrales City Council will offer free public transport shuttles to facilitate arrival. Bus services will depart from Sands of Cabrales every quarter of an hour between 8:00 and 11:00, when the high mountain road that gives access to the town will be cut off. The device will operate again from Sotres to Arenas starting at 4:00 p.m. and every quarter of an hour until 7:00 p.m.