Langreo

Langreo is a council of the autonomous community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain, and a city, capital of said council. The council limits to the north with Siero and Noreña, to the west with Oviedo, to the south with Mieres and to the east with San Martín del Rey Aurelio. It has a population of 38,262 inhabitants (INE 2022).

Langreo, which was one of the most important industrial centers in the country, is part of a large metropolitan area that encompasses twenty councils in the center of the region, backbone with a dense network of roads, highways and railways and with a population of 835,053 inhabitants that make it the seventh in Spain, also forming part of the "eight Asturian".

The city of Langreo is the capital of the council of the same name, its official place name being "Llangréu/Langreo". It has a population of over 30,000 inhabitants (the 4th most populated area of the Principality of Asturias), distributed mainly between the districts of La Felguera and Sama.

Toponymy

By virtue of decree 73/2005 of July 17, 2005, published in the BOPA of the 25th of that same month, the official forms of the council place names were approved, becoming official the denominations in Asturian, except in the cases of Llangréu/Langreo and Tiuya/Tuilla, in which the bilingual form was maintained.

There was some controversy about the name that the council should acquire. In principle, the Toponymy Board proposed the form "Llangreo", which supposedly remains relict among the older Langreanos, but finally, by decision of the municipality itself, the form "Llangréu" was assumed.

History

In ancient times the council was known by different place names: Lagniam, Langueyo, Lagneo, Lancritus, Lagueyo, Languciati and Langredo. The meaning of the term Langreo is not clear, pointing to several possibilities in relation to its valley shape or the passage of roads.

The oldest vestiges found in Langreo correspond to the Les Cueves site and the culture of the forts: Pico Castiello, San Tirso and Castiello de Rionda. It is known that the Romans built defensive towers throughout the Valle del Nalón, as well as a bridge with six robust arches in the Turiellos Bridge, according to some chroniclers the largest in Asturias and destroyed when the Nalón River diverted its course centuries ago.

Langreo Town Hall in Plaza de España, Sama District

According to some sources, including Father Mariana, it was in Langreo where the army of the Muslim governor Munuza was annihilated when he fled Asturias after the battle of Covadonga. In the year 857 Ordoño I donated the churches to the Cathedral of Oviedo of Santa Eulalia, San Cosme and San Damián located in the territory of Langreo. The council became a court of the Asturian monarchy when Aurelio established its headquarters in what is now San Martín del Rey Aurelio, then part of Langreo.

In 1075 Alfonso VI made a new donation to the church of Oviedo of the territories of the Langreo valley, later confirmed by Queen Urraca, with which all the territory of the current council became the property of the church of Oviedo (and therefore bishop's council). However, the langreanos were in disagreement, they rebelled and a trial was held in which Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar was found, ruling in favor of Oviedo. Today the Langreo shield includes ten helmets that recall the so-called conflict of the Infanzones.

In 1338 the council received the Puebla Charter through the Fuero de Benavente. Already in 1581 and under the reign of Felipe II Langreo became a council of Realengo, independent again from the Oviedo church. Several noble families had their land in Langreo, subtracting today some of the ancestral homes of these families.

During the War of Independence, Napoleonic troops set fire to the hermitage of San Lorenzo and looted the Sanctuary of Carbayu. In January 1874, a party of Carlists led by Ángel Rosas burned down the town hall and with it the historical archive.

Industrialization

In the 18th century mining begins, which will profoundly mark the economy and society of what are today the Asturian Mining Basins. At first it was very rudimentary farms for local consumption, until it began to be used in the Department of Ferrol and in the La Cavada factory. In the XIX century, mining began to become professional and numerous industrial companies settled in the area, being the current Duro Felguera (founded by Pedro Duro) the most important. The La Felguera Factory became the most important steel center in Spain. With this, chemical and food factories, all kinds of metallurgy, refractories, ceramics, energy, etc., were also installed. that made Langreo one of the most important industrial centers in Spain.

Monument to Pedro Duro in the district of La Felguera

This expansion was motivated by the birth of the Langreo Railway, the third on the peninsula and at the time the oldest operating railway company in Europe. A decade earlier the Carbonera Highway had been inaugurated, between the council and Gijón, proposed at the time by Jovellanos in his desire to take advantage of Langrean coal.

20th century

The period of the Second Republic was very hectic. There was a general depression with unemployment and misery for the working class. The Langrean proletariat repeatedly demonstrated against the republican regime, among other reasons because of the CNT's opposition to government socialism.

The municipality of Langreano acquired great prominence during the Revolution of 1934, as well as in the subsequent Civil War.

Langreo experienced an extraordinary economic and demographic expansion, reaching 70,000 inhabitants in 1965. The period of autarky was the last moment of industrial splendor in Langreo (in 1959 41% of Asturian coal was extracted by Langrean companies). In 1964 the Banco de Langreo was founded.

With the liberalization of the market, industrial activity began to move to the Asturian coast, beginning an economic depression in the area that continues today. Currently, work is being done on the recovery of the Industrial Archaeological Heritage as well as its tourist exploitation, and on the attraction of economic sources such as the Valnalón business center, the Riaño and La Moral industrial estates, etc. As for the traditional industry, in 2016 the last mine in Langreo (Pozo María Luisa) was closed and some factories remain, such as the Nalón Chemical plant, the Langreo Thermoelectric Power Plant (which will close in 2020) and the Bayer Factory where produces 100% of the world's acetylsalicylic acid for the manufacture of aspirin.

City

The city was established as the urban complex formed by the then towns and now urban districts of Sama, Ciaño, La Felguera, Lada, Barros and Riaño, and assumed the capital status of the council, instead of Sama. These changes were approved at the City Council sessions held on September 30 and October 28, 1983.

The modification was approved by Decree 76/86, of June 11, of the Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Administration of the Principality of Asturias, and published in the BOPA of June 26, 1986. However, the change of Capital status was not official until its registration in the Register of Local Entities.

The change was motivated by the concern felt and shaped by the existence of an urban entity with a linear structure following the course of the Nalón river and the articulation of the internal communication route that constituted the old Oviedo highway. Since the change, Sama, Ciaño, La Felguera, Lada, Barros and Riaño make up urban districts of the so-called city of Langreo, and they stopped appearing in the gazetteers in their homonymous parishes. Consequently, the city of Langreo does not appear in the gazetteer as part of any of the parishes into which the council is divided.

The use of the place name «Langreo» in reference to the city is not common among its inhabitants, due to the coincidence of the name with that of the council and the strong social roots of the names of the entities that make it up.

Ortofotomapa de Langreo

Geography

Langreo Valley with the districts of Sama in the first place and La Felguera in the background

In 1986, a decree of the Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Administration, at the request of the Langreo City Council, declared the entity made up of the districts of Riaño, as the only population entity and new capital of the council with the name of Langreo, Barros, Lada, La Felguera, Sama and Ciaño. This new urban center already had 43,233 inhabitants on this date. Its main nuclei by number of inhabitants are: its capital Langreo (central districts of the city that are, La Felguera and Sama), Tuilla, La Nueva and La Gargantada, which are parishes in the outskirts of the city. This council has a population of 40,529 inhabitants.

The municipality has good communication routes since one of its highways, the AS-244, connects with the Y highway. The state highways AS-17 and AS-111 also pass through Langreo, as well as several regional ones, including AS-1 Mining Highway. It is at a distance from the capital of the Principality of 20 kilometers, about 18 minutes by car. The council is also connected with Oviedo and Avilés by RENFE and with Gijón by FEVE, in addition to the Alcotán and Asturbús buses. To move around the city there is urban transport (Autobuses de Langreo S.L.)

Its mountains are of a medium altitude that make it difficult to communicate with the other basin of the Caudal and with those of the neighboring councils. In the far south is where the highest altitudes are concentrated, which are around 1,000 meters: Alto de San Justo stands out at 1,011 meters, Cogollín peak at 1,005 meters and Picu les Cruces at 946 meters. The upper area of Langreo is located in the Protected Landscape of the Mining Basins of Asturias.

Of the 82 square kilometers of the municipal term, about 7 are heavily urbanized for residential and industrial use. The remaining 75 are occupied by meadows, forests and, to a lesser extent, agricultural land.

Hydrography

Its main fluvial course is the Nalón river that crosses Langreo, on which the most outstanding population entities and the city are based. There are many river courses that run through this term and that end at the Nalón river such as La Venta, El Rión, Candín and Samuño. Its relief is not particularly abrupt but it has significant slopes. The Nalón River was once used to wash the coal from the mining wells of Langreo, which gave the water a blackish appearance. Since 1989 the waters of the Nalón have come down again clean.

Demographics

During the XX century, like many of the towns in the Asturian coal basin, Langreo had a demographic behavior with two clearly differentiated phases. The first from the beginning of the century to the mid-60s was of strong growth. In 1900, the town had 18,714 inhabitants, a figure that increased to over 70,000 in 1965, being at that time one of the 50 largest municipalities in Spain. The second begins with the coal crisis in Asturias, derived from the end of autarky, and the consequences of the Coal Mining Stabilization Plan of 1959. In this second demographic phase, which lasts to this day, the town loses population rapidly. In this way, in 2018, the population of Langreo was below 40,000 inhabitants for the first time in 90 years, a figure similar to the population of 1930, after having lost 5,000 inhabitants in a decade and 30,000 since the maximum peak. from 1965.

The municipality, which has an area of 82.46 km², has 40,529 inhabitants and a density of 491.5 inhabitants/km² according to the 2017 municipal register of the INE.

Graphic of demographic evolution of Langreo between 1842 and 2021

Population of law according to population censuses of the INE.Population according to the 2017 municipal register.

Territorial organization

Today it shows us a demography very similar to the Asturian average. The difference in people between those who are 20 years old and those who are 60 years old is very similar. This equality is due to the crisis that has affected the mining sector since the late 1970s, with the closure of many mines and the same thing happens in the iron and steel industries that began a merger process in the seventies, which ended with the transfer of the facilities. to Veriña, near the port of Musel and with the dismantling of Duro Felguera, bringing an emigration of the population looking for new jobs. Something that gives us an idea of the severity of this crisis is the comparison of jobs, since if in 1957 the steel industry employed 4,346 people, twenty years later only exactly 846 people worked.

Parishes

Since the creation of the city of Langreo, the council is made up of that city (which does not belong to any parish) and 8 parishes:

Services

Mina Pozo San Luis, mining museum

Transportation

Roads

• AS-I Autovía Minera: Gijón - Pola de Siero - Langreo - Mieres
• AS-117 Nalon Valley highway - Langreo district: Riaño peripheral district - La Felguera districts - Lada - Sama
• AS-17 Carretera Avilés - Langreo: Avilés - Posada de Llanera - Lugones - Langreo (Distrito de Riaño)
• AS-116 Olloniego Road - Langreo: Olloniego - Tudela Veguín - Langreo
• AS-117 Nalon Corridor: Langreo - Sotrondio - Pola de Laviana - Rioseco - Campo de Caso - Puerto de Tarna
• AS-269 Carretera Langreo - Mieres: Langreo - Alto de San Emiliano - Rioturbio - Mieres
• AS-354 Bendom Road: San Esteban de las Cruces - Bendones - Tudela Veguín - Riaño
• AS-376 Carretera Carbonera: Gijón - Alto de la Madera - Noreña - El Berrón - La Gargantada - Langreo
• AS-387 Nalon Corridor: District of Riaño (Langreo) - District of Lada (Langreo) / District of Barros (Langreo) - Langreo - Sotrondio (S.M.R.A.) - Pola de Laviana - El Condado (Asturias) / Las Llanas - Case field

Railway

• (stations in Ciaño, Sama, La Felguera, Barros and Peña Rubia) with Oviedo and Avilés
• (stations in Ciaño, Sama, La Felguera and Tuilla) with Gijón

Economy

Centro FP de Langreo, in the Technological City of Valnalón (La Felguera)

Tourist railway that runs through the underground mines of the Samuño Valley

Since the XIX century, Langreo was one of the great national nuclei of steel activity, driven by various companies installed mainly in La Felguera, and mining activity, with the third railway line that existed in mainland Spain (Ferrocarril de Langreo), or the Carbonera Highway, promoted by Jovellanos. In the middle of the XX century, it entered a progressive decline that ended with the practical dismantling of the entire industry linked to metal and coal.

Today, efforts are being made to recover the rich architectural heritage that this industrial past has left in the council, through numerous cultural centers (Steel and Steel Museum, Samuño Ecomuseum and Railway, the Old Macelo and the Archive Historical of Hunosa). The last mining operation (Pozo María Luisa) closed in 2017. Three large factories remain: the Iberdrola Thermal Power Plant (which will close in 2020), the Bayer factory (where all the world's acetylsalicylic acid is produced) and the Nalón Chemical. The Technological City of Valnalón, on the site of the old La Felguera Factory, is a consolidated technology park and seedbed for companies born in 1990, where the firm Capgemini is among others, although not all the space has yet been used. It also houses an industrial estate that joins those of Riaño I, II and III, La Moral (very partially occupied) and El Cadavíu (whose project is on the siding). Craft beer has acquired a certain importance in recent years in the hospitality industry, with a factory in Riaño and two in La Felguera. Also stopped are the projects of the Langreo Norte technological and residential park between the districts of La Felguera and Barros and the trade fair and business center of Talleres del Conde.

Administration and politics

In the council of Langreo, since 1979, the party that has ruled the longest has been the PSOE. The only parties that have governed this council have been: the PSOE from 1979 to 1995, IU from 1995 to 2003 and from 2015, and again the PSOE from 2003 to 2015 (see list of mayors of Langreo). All the elections have been won by left-wing parties except for the 2000 General, where the PP was the most voted party. The current mayoress is the socialist Carmen Arbesú.

Evolution of outstanding debt

The concept of outstanding debt includes only debts with savings banks and banks related to financial credits, fixed-income securities and loans or credits transferred to third parties, excluding, therefore, commercial debt.

Graphic of evolution of the city council's living debt between 2008 and 2014

Living city council debt in thousands of Euros according to data from the Ministry of Finance and Ad. Public.

The outstanding municipal debt per inhabitant in 2014 amounted to €180.32.

Heritage

Church of San Esteban

Casa de La Buelga

Medieval Tower of La Quintana

Museum of the Siderurgia of Asturias

Nalon River at its pass between La Felguera and Sama

Musical music of the Dolores Duro Park

Architecture

Religious architecture

• Church of San Esteban (Ciaño), originally from the centuryXIIHe keeps his Romanesque covers. It's good for Cultural Interest

• Sanctuary of Carbayu (Ciaño). Historical Art Monument dedicated to the patron saint of Langreo. Its first structure is of medieval times, but in the centuryXVIII, it was decided to raise a greater temple.
• Church of San Martín (Riaño). Reconstruction of the centuryXVIII.

• Church of James Apostle (Sama). Neogothic church, the work of the Somolinos Brothers after the destruction of the previous temple on the occasion of the October Revolution.

• Church of Saint Peter (La Felguera), is from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Destroyed in the Spanish civil war and built again in the 1940s. The current restoration is neo-Roman style, one of the largest proportions in Asturias, designed by Francisco de Zuvillaga. It highlights the decoration, work of Magín Berenguer that mixes the Asturian and Byzantine styles, relics, central lamp, sculptural sizes of high quality and a canvas by Juan de Roelas of the XVII.
• Colegio de los Padres Dominicos (La Felguera), shows architecture of the modern movement, work of Fray Coello de Portugal.

Industrial heritage

• Mining heritage such as numerous morons, chimneys, laundries and wells of different times: the Pozo María Luisa, Candín, San Luis (Good Cultural Interest), Fondón, Modesta, El Terrerón or Samuño.
• Ferroviary heritage: there are several sets such as the station of La Felguera (which retain the station, houses, enslavement and workshops) or the buildings of travelers such as the two seasons of Sama, and small attachments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as Tuilla and Ciaño.
• Houses of engineers and high commands distributed throughout the council, such as the La Felguera (Palacio de las Nieves, houses of Conde Sizzo Street, houses of the Eléctrica Company of Langreo...) and Sama (Carbs La Nueva)
• Workers' House of the CenturyXIX and the beginning of the XX, with the ensembles of La Felguera (Barrio Urquijo, Houses of the Company of Asturias, Cuarteles de La Formiguera...)
• Roblonado iron bridges, such as those of the English and the Maquinilla in Sama, used today as pedestrian walkways.
• Fabrile assemblies such as the Factory of La Felguera (which preserves workshops, offices, dining rooms, towers and fireplaces, etc.), the Iberian Society of Nitrogen (one of the largest abandoned industrial assemblies in Spain), the Conde Workshops, Refracta fireplaces or the old slaughterhouse, today Pinacoteca Eduardo Úrculo.
• Equipment from industrial activity, such as education (La Felguera School of Arts and Crafts and Schools in Sama) or sanitary (Sanatorio Adaro in Sama).

Civil heritage

• The manor houses that were solar of families names of Langreo, including the House of the Alberti, La Buelga, Cimadevilla and the medieval house and tower of La Quintana (all Bien de Interés Cultural, in Ciaño) or the Palacio de Camposagrad and the house of Los Dorado and its medieval tower in Riaño.
• The La Felguera Abbot Market as well as different buildings of the modern movement, such as the old trade union houses of La Felguera and Sama or the commercial architecture of Sama, such as Almacenes the Map.
• The Plaza de España in Sama, where you will find the consistorial house of the centuryXIXThe Cuca House and the building of the Herrero Bank.
• Parks such as the Dolores Fernández Duro Park (with its music temple, street lamps and casting sources) is included in the Cultural Inventory of Asturias as well as the Parque Dorado de Sama, two of the oldest in Asturias. The García Lago de La Felguera park is one of the largest in the region.
• The Felgueroso Film by Sama, designed by Juan José Suárez Aller, is a sample of architecture of the second Spanish modernity.
• El Puente atirantado del Nalón, by Javier Manterola, Premio Nacional de Ingeniería Civil (2001), and Leonardo Fernández Troyano.

Sculpture

• Monument to Luis Adaro «La Carbonera» (Sama)
• Monument to Pedro Duro (La Felguera)
• Monument to the Happy Brothers (Ciaño)
• El Cuélebre, located on the Mitological River Ride, the work of the sculptor Joaquín Rubio Camín

Museums

• Museum of the Siderurgia de Asturias (MUSI)
• Ecomuseo Minero y Ferrocarril del Valle de Samuño
• Pinacoteca Eduardo Úrculo

Culture

Parties

• Fiestas de San Pedro de La Felguera (June)
• Fiestas de Santiago de Sama (July)
• Our Lady of Carbayu (September)
• Carnival/Antroxu (February)
• Eggs Pintos, Sama (March)
• Days of Cider, La Felguera (April)
• The Flower, Lada (May)
• San Juan in the neighborhoods of La Llera (Sama) and Sutu and Urquijo (La Felguera), June
• Our Lady of the Amparo of Tuilla (August)
• Feasts of the Pure Conception, Barros (September)
• Fiestas de San Martín de Riaño (September)
• Fiestas del barrio de La Pomar, La Felguera (October)
• La Felguera Traditional Market (October)
• Days of Your Excellence La Fabada de La Felguera (December, Regional Tourist Interest)
• Festivals of Langreo Centro, La Felguera (September)

Sports

Ganzábal Stadium

• Palacio de Deportes Juan Carlos Beiro - Langreo Centro
• Polideportivo Municipal La Felguera
• Ciañu Municipal Sports Police
• La Felguera Sports Park
• Ganzábal Stadium, La Felguera
• Sports area of Los Llerones, Sama
• El Pilar Sports Area, Lada
• Polideportivo Municipal Riaño
• Campo de El Candín, Tuilla

Notable people