Llaranes

Llaranes is a neighborhood in the Asturian municipality of Avilés (Spain), it is located in the southeastern area of it. Its population increased significantly starting in the 1950s with the construction of the workers' town of the Empresa Nacional Siderúrgica S.A. It constitutes, today, one of the best examples of its typology in Spain, ^{[citation required]} and an outstanding point of reference for Asturian industrial heritage.

The neighborhood festival was traditionally that of San Lorenzo, which is celebrated the weekend closest to August 10, in honor of its patron San Lorenzo de Cortina. Since the creation of the factory town (next to the original neighborhood) and the new church of Santa Bárbara with the construction of the factory, this saint also began to be celebrated around December 4, since the sixties of the 20th century..

Symbols

Llaranes does not have any official or popular symbol. Only the hymn titled Llaranes has been made. My neighborhood, with an original lyric by neighbor Ángeles Álvarez Nieto that was premiered in a concert held in 2009 in the Santa Bárbara church and that has been performed every day since 2015 by the Plaza clock Mayor, at six. On the occasion of the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the working-class town, in 2017, the artist from Avilés Samuel Armas designed a flag that brought together some of the most popular heritage elements of the neighborhood, which was removed from its mast at the end of the anniversary.

Geography

Llaranes is located in the southeastern end of the municipality of Avilés. It belongs to the parish of Avilés, one of the six into which the council is divided.

The area is crossed by the Arlós river from south to north, limited to the east by the Truyés mountain and presided over by a small promontory, in the past called El Carbayéu, where the church of Santa Bárbara is today located.

Currently, Llaranes is made up of the areas of the original Llaranes, El Poblado, Garajes (former Monte Ormón), El Cruce, La Toba, La Espina and El Ensanche. Before the arrival of ENSIDESA it had just under four hundred inhabitants, which with the construction of the workers' town rose to more than eight thousand.^{[citation required]}

History

Archaeological remains from prehistoric times have been found, such as the discovery of a denticulate and a levallois flake. These few vestiges link with those corresponding to the Romanization period, from which the existence of a small Roman villa has been defended based on the appearance of several copper coins from the imperial period. The toponym itself is also from this period, which specialists link with the anthroponym Larius and which, in medieval times, would evolve to Leranes and, later, to its current form of Llaranes.

During the Early Middle Ages there was a Christian community, probably small in size, which had its own temple located, most likely, in the area around the current Chapel of San Lorenzo de Cortina. From that primitive worship space, a pre-Romanesque window dating from the X century is preserved, inserted in the front of the current chapel.. In the years 2002 and 2010, archaeological campaigns were carried out that brought to light the remains of a necropolis of medieval origin, whose occupation extended during the Modern Age.

The Chapel of San Lorenzo de Cortina went through times of greater or lesser splendor, but it never lost its sacred status. Almost a century after the death of its last parish priest, Alonso Suárez, the church was in a state of ruin. This fact is reflected in a warning issued by the Archbishopric of Oviedo in 1732, urging the neighbors to repair the church. The notice had effect, since in 1773 it was already listed as an asylum church.

In the 18th century, almost as a precursor to the industrial development that Llaranes would achieve with the Franco dictatorship, Martinete was founded del Castañedo de Zaldúa, which became one of the most important metallurgical establishments of the time in the council, dedicated to the processing of copper. Its factory building is still preserved, while the large house with a chapel that sheltered its owners was demolished in the seventies of the last century.

Between 1845 and 1850 the Geographical-Statistical-Historical Dictionary of Spain and its Overseas Possessions, by Pascual Madoz, was published, which gives a detailed description of the Llaranes de Allá:

Felicity in the province and diocese of Oviedo, judicial party and City Council of Avilés, to the S.E. of the capital of the party in quite flat terrain; fighting the E.-O winds, and the climate is temperate and healthy. It has 30 houses, of which 28 are of one floor; one source in the population and another in the term whose waters are of good quality, particularly those of the latter which is called the Toba source. The church parr. (San Lorenzo) is an aneja of Avilés. Confine the term N. with the Strikes of Avilés; E. with the parishion of Trasona; S. with the Corbera, and O. with that of Avilés. The land participates in mountain and plain and of good quality in general; it has some apples, pears, chestnuts and poplars, and many natural and artificial meadows that produce tasty grass herbs. It passes through this feligress a stream that is born in Benin, bathes the places of the Mota, fountain-hot Juncedo, Molleda and Villalegre, passes through the bridge of Santa Apolonia and enters the river of Aviles. The roads lead to the capital of the party and province, and to the village of Gijón and are in regular state. The mail is received in Avilés PRODUCTION: wheat, maize beans, fruits and pastures; the cattle are breeding necessary for the work; there are hunting and fishing of various kinds, INDUSTRIA: agriculture, a flour mill and a martinete to throw the copper, POPULATION. 49 neighbors, 240 souls.

The Llaranes of ENSIDESA

In 1950, Empresa Nacional Siderúrgica, S.A. was established in Madrid, at the request of the National Institute of Industry (INI). The final location of this comprehensive steel plant considered various locations in the Principality of Asturias, until finally It was decided to erect the factory on the right bank of the Avilés estuary. The poor conditions of the muddy terrain forced the use of foundation methods such as driving concrete piles or the use of compressed air hoods to facilitate the construction work of the numerous buildings that were part of the factory. From the beginning, the construction in the area adjacent to the historic Avilés neighborhood of Llaranes of a considerable size workers' town was proposed to facilitate the accommodation of a part of the workers who came to Avilés from numerous points in the Spanish rural geography. In this way, numerous expropriations are carried out and the agricultural and livestock landscape gives way to a new town equipped with all types of services for the well-being and control of its inhabitants, with an urban planning approach of great uniqueness. With the paternalism typical of the Franco dictatorship.

The construction project was carried out by architects Juan Manuel Cárdenas Rodríguez and Francisco Goicoechea Agustí, who proposed an ideal design that combines residential buildings (located in hierarchical nuclei differentiated from each other, depending on the position occupied by their tenants in the factory), buildings for community use and large garden areas that constitute, today, one of its main hallmarks. This paternalistic model contemplated the construction of buildings articulated around patios (called "pavilions" and "screens") that housed the workers in homes of about sixty square meters. At the northern end of the town, the homes for the foremen were located and in the highest part, already in the nearby neighborhood of La Rocica, two towns dedicated to intermediate positions were created. The engineers resided in a highly relevant architectural complex, partially remodeled, located in the center of Avilés.

Starting in the 1980s, the town of Llaranes entered into a deep decline coinciding with the beginnings of the privatization of ENSIDESA and its abandonment of social work, which included the maintenance of its homes. At the end of the 20th century the town was transferred to the Avilés City Council and the homes were sold to its tenants, becoming part of the city as just another neighborhood, abandoning the autarky that characterized it.

In recent decades, both the neighborhood and the town of Llaranes have undergone a rehabilitation process. The working-class town, unique for its formal characteristics and its state of conservation, is currently included in the cultural offering of the Avilés region along with other notable elements of Asturian industrial heritage, such as the Arnao mine (Castrillón).

Cultural Heritage

Llaranes before ENSIDESA

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  San Lorenzo de Cortina Chapel: Old parish church of Llaranes, erected in the centuryXVIII after the ruin of the previous pre-Romanical temple, of which a pre-Romanic window is preserved with sogue decoration dating back to the centuryX. He played the role of parish church until the constitution of the new Santa Barbara in 1957. The building suffered serious damage during the Civil War, losing most of its movable property. Inside it preserves an original standard of procedure, as well as the images of San Lorenzo, San Antonio de Padua and the Miraculous Virgin. It also covered, since the 1980sXX., especially the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Every 10th of August a procession is held that runs through the surrounding streets.

  

• Ethnographic group of Llaranes: In the surroundings of the Chapel of San Lorenzo de Cortina there are several hórreos and paneras of different chronologies, which constitute examples of great interest. It is worth noting a hórreo with wooden pellets of Villaviciosa style, another with carved and painted decoration and a panera with inscription that dates back to 1872. These last two belong to the Carreño style and are complemented by others designed by the nuclei of Les Niñades, La Toba and the village. Many examples of these buildings were destroyed for the construction of the workers' village.
• Martinete del Castañedo de Zaldúa: Fabril building located in the area of La Toba intended to stretch the copper. It became the most important factory in the council since its construction in the centuryXVIII. It was located in an environment surrounded by trees that allowed the facilities to supply wood. Next to the small factory there was a large case for its owners, two floors and with a townhouse. This complex was torn down in the seventies of the last century for the construction of the C.P. La Toba, retaining only its shield on La Fruta de Avilés street.

Architectural heritage

• Plaza Mayor: Neururgical center of the neighborhood which, in origin, also hosted religious functions. It is one of the most conservative, architecturally speaking, properties of the whole. It is a porticoda square of three arms in whose intersections tower. The central body houses a building that, proposed in the form and manner of a City Hall without being, hosted the headquarters of the Social Affairs Service of Ensidesa. Since its construction it was the chosen place to place the main commercial services: Posts and telegraphs, coffee shop, telephone and shops (in origin also the economy and later classrooms). At present, shops and homes are maintained, while the central body is intended for municipal associations hotel. It celebrates the main events of the neighborhood.
• Santa Barbara Church: It is a project of Juan Manuel Cárdenas, signed with Francisco Goicoechea (whose print is much less patent). It has been erected since 1957 at the top of Llaranes. It is a temple of large dimensions, of Latin cross plant, and is surrounded on its sides East, North and South by an atrium and presided on the front by a tower bell tower of about twenty meters high. Its octagonal dome is decorated with more than four hundred square meters of fresco paintings, the work of Madrid's artist Javier Clavo Gil, where the prophets, the apostles and various religious scenes are represented, including a Byzantine-inspired Pantocrator. The same painter also performs the mosaics (the scenes of the Via Crucis and six others in large format) and the stained glass windows (between the two of the transept). Presiding the main altar is a Spanish altarpiece of the centuryXVI, from Tubilla del Lago (Burgos), which was acquired by ENSIDESA and restored by staff of the Museo Nacional del Prado for placement in the temple of Llaranes. The central image of Santa Barbara is a copy of a German size of the centuryXIII.

  

  In 2007, the work was published Llaranes in history: parish of Santa Barbara, by Juan Goti and José María Murias, which collects extensive historical information about this parish.
• School of girls: It was the first school to be built and the only one originally projected. It is the work of Juan Manuel Cárdenas and Francisco Goicoechea and became operational in the academic year 1956/57. Due to its unique architectural conception it was included in 2017 in the list of modern architecture buildings of the Iberian Docomomo Foundation. The building has one floor in the form of "U". On both sides of the main hall are the classrooms, which in origin had a curtain wall that opened outside in the days of good time. Each classroom has two large mural paintings by Javier Clavo Gil, Juan Ignacio Cárdenas and Luis Echanove, which represent, respectively, the materials of the moment, the stations and the continents. The centre was run by the Sisters of Charity and since 1985/86 it has been attended by the "Llaranes" Public School.
• School of children: Inaugurated in 1959, it responds to the traces of Francisco Goicoechea. It incorporates elements typical of the modern movement architecture, such as the curtain wall or the large alloys and protect the entrances to the classrooms from the outside. For its interest it was included in 2017 in the inventory of the Iberian Docomomo Foundation. The classrooms are available on both sides of a central body of two floors joined by an almost sculptural helical staircase. The offices and the hall of events are located at the top. It was directed by the Salesian Fathers and since 1985/86 it is intended for the functions of Primary Education of the "Llaranes" Public College.
• Bolera: It is a construction that is already part of the workers' village. Its design is due to the hand of the brothers architects Somolinos Cuesta, who erect it in 1959 in the image and likeness of the one built in Laviana. It consists of a large vault that covers the track where the bowls are located and which, in turn, makes the functions of grader. On the contrary there is a small cover for the shooter held by two concrete straps. The bolera, which still continues its use with the Group of Bolos Ensidesa, was included in 2017 in the list of modern movement buildings of interest of the Iberian Docomomo Foundation, with the highest category.

  

• Provisional Schools "The Tubes": In the face of the immediate saturation of the female school, the construction of provisional schools is proposed until the inauguration of the male in 1959. They had little more than provisional, and they were in operation until the 1970s. In record time and with few economic means, nine half-cylinder-shaped ships were erected radially arranged around a landscaped courtyard that is still preserved today.
• Economy: Inaugurated in 1962 with traces of the two architects, Juan Manuel Cárdenas and Francisco Goicoechea Agustí. From the very first moment the workers of the factory had an economy (installed by that time in the bass of the Plaza Mayor), where they purchased products at cost. In the final line of the construction of the village it is decided to erect a property intended exclusively for such purpose, included in the inventory of modern movement architecture of the Iberian Docomomo Foundation in 2017. It is a two-storey building where it stands out in the central part: an open space crowned by a huge glass vault that reminds the bean markets. Under it are two murals made by Luis Echanove that represent motifs of the sea and the mountain. It currently houses the facilities of a commercial chain.
• Children's park: It was projected by Francisco Goicoechea as a place of green, recreation and play areas for the children who, by those times, lived the village. Its unique approach made it unique, with swimming pool and elements of architectural interest such as the arch of access, inspired by the architectural games of the time. The perimeter closure represents police, firefighters, clowns and other characters who follow perfectly the global idea of the enclosure. Finally it is necessary to highlight the "seta", a peculiar building that in its day sheltered the guard post of the park.

Services

• Colegio Público de Educación Infantil y Primaria "Llaranes".
• Colegio Público de Educación Infantil y Primaria "La Toba".
• 0 to 3 years school "La Toba".
• Children's parks: La Toba, Llaranes, El Cruce, Garages.
• Santa Barbara Stadium.
• Sports facilities of the "La Toba-Brother Castro Sports Complex".
• Cuatreada municipal wallet.
• River walk with lane-bici.
• Urban bus line.
• Highway railway line with stop in Llaranes.
• Sociocultural center of municipal ownership.

Festivals and celebrations

• Antroxu (Carnaval).
• Solidarity Week for Guatemala (April).
• Patron Festivals of San Lorenzo (August).
• Celebrations of Santa Barbara and Christmas (December).

Institutions and associations

• Neighborhood Association "Santa Barbara"
• Association of neighbors "El Camín" of Llaranes and El Pozón.
• Housewives Association "Llaranes Acacia".
• Commission of celebrations of Llaranes (COFELLA).
• Costume of Sardina Arenque (Antroxu).
• Santa Barbara Parroquial Caritas.
• Multi-sport Llaranes.
• Basketball club "South Avilés".
• Peña sportinguista de Llaranes.
• ENSIDESA bowling group.
• ENSIDESA Fishing Group.
• Santa Barbara Theatre Group.
• Llaranes Football Club.
• Tennis Club ENSIDESA.
• Club Teleradio Llaranes.
• Archdiocese of Mary Helper.

Llaranes has a municipal association hotel in the facilities of the former ENSIDESA Social Affairs department, located in the neighborhood's Plaza Mayor. Institutions whose scope of action exceeds the territory of Llaranes are also based there. This is the case of the folkloric research association Escontra'l Raigañu (dedicated to the study of Asturian culture), the Alfoz de Gauzón Study Center (dedicated to the history and cultural heritage of the ancient Alfoz de Avilés) and the MAVEA ornithological group.

Featured neighbors

• Enrique Castro González "Quini"
• Jesús Castro González (futbolist)
• Enrique Rodríguez Cal "Dacal II" (boxer)
• Benjamin Menéndez Navarro (plastic artist)
• Mons. Annibal Nieto Guerra (Catholic bishop)
• Mariví Monteserín Rodríguez (politics)
• Pilar Varela Díaz (politics)