Valdesoto, Exemplary Town of Asturias Award

The Parish of Valdesoto (Siero) has been bestowed with the 2025 Exemplary Town of Asturias Award, as announced today in Oviedo by the Jury responsible for conferring said Award. 

The Jury for the Award –convened for the thirty-sixth year running by the Princess of Asturias Foundation– was chaired by Francisco Rodríguez García and composed of Ana Alonso Lorenzo, Cristina Álvarez Mendo, María Cardín Blanco, Nicanor Fernández Álvarez, María Fernanda Fernández Gutiérrez, Lucía González Cuesta, Leticia González Menéndez, Francisco González Orejas, Juaco López Álvarez, Judith Naves Morán, Eva Pando Iglesias, Rosa Roces García, Ramón Rodríguez Álvarez, Trinidad Rodríguez Díez, Germán Romano Sobrino, Jorge Suárez Díaz and Fernando Delgado Álvarez (as acting secretary).

Valdesoto is a parish belonging to the Borough of Siero that includes fourteen centres of population, comprising one thousand eight hundred residents given over to farming, mining, industry and services. Their ability to come together to promote the development of the parish is reflected in some thirty associations dedicated to leisure, culture, tradition, folklore, gastronomy, sports and the environment. The Farmers’ Society and the Agricultural Union were established in 1915 and La Previsora de Valdesoto livestock association in 1929. The present-day residents’ association was established in 1976 and since then has carried out significant work such as the construction of a health centre thanks to financial contributions and local labour, the design of a pedestrian pathway through the locality to showcase fountains that have been preserved and restored by residents, and the development of an online portal with information on Valdesoto. The latest association was founded in 2005, which, under the name Todos Juntos Podemos (All Together We Can Do It), brought together representatives from all the others to promote Valdesoto’s candidacy for the Exemplary Town of Asturias Award, although it also carries out other activities such as the revival of traditions like the San Xuan bonfire on midsummer’s eve. It has also published the book Valdesoto, del ayer al hoy [Valdesoto, from Yesterday to Today] (2007) and collaborated in the publication in 2006 of a book about Jovellanos with early 20th-century texts by Fray Bernardo Martínez Noval. 

The residents of Valdesoto have managed to recover their traditions and preserve their artistic and cultural heritage. Through collective work, they have restored fountains, pathways, nature areas, country houses, chapels, raised granaries-cum-storehouses, and the like. Valdesoto is home to all kinds of well-preserved or restored old buildings, including mansions such as the Palacio de Carreño, the Palacio de los Camino, the Palacio del Valle and that of Leceñes, as well as chapels such as those consecrated to St John the Baptist, The Three Monarchs (Los Santos Reyes) and St Agustine, in Castiello, among others. In addition, the locality boasts one hundred and two hórreos and fifty-three paneras (two types of raised granaries-cum-storehouses) that are preserved in very good condition. The residents have restored pathways and designed mountain routes. They have organized an annual wood crafts market since 1998, as well as photography, speed painting and children’s literature competitions. The ways of rural life, with the customs and crafts of the early 20th century, are displayed annually at the Valdesoto d’Antañu competition. 

Among the cultural treasures that have been passed down from generation to generation are Les Carroces (floats), a parade that has been held for more than half a century on the Monday after the second Sunday in August, the main day of the San Félix festivities. Groups of residents design their floats and work on them throughout the year to participate in this event, which was declared a Festivity of Regional Tourist Interest in 2002. Another preserved tradition is Los Sidros, winter masquerades that announce the arrival of Les Comedies, which were declared an Asset of Intangible Cultural Interest by the Principality in 2019. Young people dressed in sheepskins and carrying cowbells precede the actors of these comic plays and, after the performance, collect money and organize jumping competitions. Les comedies were traditionally performed on Sundays, after leaving mass, in the churchyard or outside the taverns. The most renowned author of these comedies, José Noval Martínez (1856-1937), was a native of Castiello (Valdesoto). 
Over the years, the Exemplary Town of Asturias Award has become one of the Foundation’s most well-received and most wide-ranging activities within the Principality, as it is aimed at recognizing a town, village, population centre, scenic area or group of people in the Principality of Asturias that has stood out in a notable way in defending and conserving its natural or environmental setting, its historical, cultural or artistic heritage, in initiatives for boosting the economy or in the carrying out of communal works or other such outstanding displays of solidarity.

This award was first conferred in 1990, on the Foundation’s tenth anniversary, and is of a different nature and character than the Princess of Asturias Awards. It entails a cash prize of forty thousand euros. It is presented each year by Their Majesties The King and Queen of Spain –accompanied since 2019 by Their Royal Highnesses The Princess of Asturias and Infanta Sofía of Spain– the day after the Princess of Asturias Awards Ceremony, which is held in Oviedo in the second fortnight of October. 

In all, 34 candidatures were put forward for the Award this year.