Grado (Principado de Asturias) (0)

Did you know that... Grado

It is a village belonging to the parish of the same name and capital of the council of the same name, is situated on a plain and is surrounded by fertile orchards that irrigate the waters of the rivers Cubia and Nalón. The Cubia crosses the town giving it a nice river walk before pouring its flow into the Nalón. Although the old historical references to the town of Grado are lost in Roman times, of which numerous archaeological remains speak, its foundation is due to Alfonso X in the 13th century. It was born on the edge of the Primitive Way to Santiago and where it crosses the Royal Way of the Table that came from Castile. This important location, together with the fertile fertile plain of the area, made the town grow around a market and was provided with walls of which there are writings from the year 1386.

A little more history

During this same century Grado was involved in the fratricidal struggles between Peter I the Cruel and his brother Henry III. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries brought to the town tough clashes between the nobles and the people. It was a stately villa. Closer in time, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the episodes of war also left their mark on Grado, the War of Independence, the pronouncements of the nineteenth century, as well as the Civil War. Today Grado continues with its great and historical mercantile tradition, celebrating crowded fairs throughout the year: the Grado Trade Fair, on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday closest to San José. The first Flower, on the Sunday following Easter and the Second Flower, on Pentecost Sunday, both with livestock market and pork products, the fairs of the Praos and the Fall, of cattle, in September, the Pilar and San Simón, in October and of horses....

What to see in Grado?

Visiting the town of Grado is to distinguish two distinct areas, the old intramural, which houses the Historic-Artistic Site very close to the Park of San Antonio and which consists of the Palace of Miranda-Valdecarzana of the fifteenth century but very reformed in the eighteenth and today is the house of Culture, the chapel of Dolores, baroque style of the eighteenth century, and the remains of the medieval wall, thirteenth century. Nearby are the Town Hall, a 19th century building and houses such as the Fernandez de Miranda built at the end of the 18th century, the Archs' House or the Palace of the Marquesa de Fontela, built in the 18th century in a regionalist style and known as the House of Cienfuegos. Walking through its streets one arrives at the church of San Pedro, from the 19th century. The Palace Velázquez, better known as the Capitol.

To discover

In Manuel Pedregal Park it is worth contemplating the music kiosk. Grado had a hospital for pilgrims that was dedicated to Nuestra Señora de las Candelas, well, embedded in the façade of a house you can see some small remains that once formed part of the chapel of La Candelera of that hospital. When walking through the streets the visitor is struck by the Indian palaces such as the Villa Granda, late nineteenth century modernist style, the eclectic palace of the Martinez Family or La Quintana and El Calabión. In the district of La Cruz there is the cross that indicated the limit of the town and if what the traveller finds is with a beautiful fountain in the shape of a temple, it is in front of the Fountain of Arriba, built by Carlos IV in 1796 in neoclassical style, the most appreciated among the neighborhood of Grado for the quality of its spring. Another traditional and curious tourist offer is Grado on Wednesdays, but especially on Sundays when the squares and streets of the town become a great shopping center, where in addition to stocking up on any kind and product, you can taste its rich gastronomy.

Festivities

Grado celebrates the 25th of July Santiago and the 26th of July as well, as long as it is neither Wednesday nor Sunday because if it were not the 27th, it celebrates Santa Ana.

Traditions

The inhabitants of Grado carry with true pride and satisfaction the nickname of Moscones. Although no one knows for sure where this name comes from, it may be that it comes from the uproar caused by market days, days of noise and loud voices, but more poetic is another version in which this origin is attributed to the ruse that the inhabitants of the village used to defend themselves from the French when they went to cross the Nalón river over the Peñaflor bridge. Then the neighbors of Grado, crouched, made such a noise imitating the flies that the horses of the French troop got angry and disbanded.

Curiosities

Open on Sunday. The market of Grado and its businesses open on Sundays. On this day the people of the village and the surrounding villages come to the market and the streets and squares of Grado turn into a traffic of people with shopping bags and curious tourists and visitors attracted by the activity of a market, historically famous, of which Grado gala and where the protagonists are the products of the land. In addition, it is impossible not to taste its cheeses or to taste the most typical sweet of the locality, the tocinillos de cielo.

The Legend

According to legend, the coat of arms that adorns the House of the Fernandez Miranda has its origin in the historical event starring a medieval warrior named Alvar Fernandez Miranda and that happened when this legendary character returning from one of his trips to Galicia ran into a caravan to Cordoba in which five girls were escorted by Moorish soldiers to deliver them as a tribute to the Emir. Alvar fought against the Moors liberating the girls and since then in his shield there are five maidens who respectively hold with both hands five shells.