La Felguera is a parish of Langreo, and the most important district in the municipality of Langreo ( Principality of Asturias) in northern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, with 21,000 inhabitants. It is located 18 minutes by car to

Oviedo Oviedo () or Uviéu (Asturian language, Asturian: ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains th ...

, the capital of Asturias. La Felguera is close to the Nalón River. La Felguer Langreo Asturias

History

Before the 19th century, the parish was a group of small villages dedicated to livestock and agriculture. In the 19th and first half of the 20th century, La Felguera, located in the mining region of Asturias, was one of the most important iron and steelworks centers in Spain,. In 1858, Pedro Duro founded the Felguera Factory (currently '' DF Group''), one of the most influential

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

-work enterprises in Spain. The town was the first production site in Spain for: sheet

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

for shipbuilding (1887),

refractory In materials science, a refractory (or refractory material) is a material that is resistant to decomposition by heat or chemical attack and that retains its strength and rigidity at high temperatures. They are inorganic, non-metallic compound ...

bricks (1896), railways (1868), chemical products derived from

ethylene Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula or . It is a colourless, flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odour when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon–carbon bond, carbon–carbon doub ...

(1957) and synthetic ammonia (1925). It also had the largest

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

in Spain in 1943. It was also an important centers for the workers' struggle. La Felguera was declared the greatest cultural point of Europe by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

in 1961. La Felguera has numerous annual celebrations (like Saint Peter's Fiestas or Day of the

Cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the Fermented drink, fermented Apple juice, juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and Ireland. The United Kingdom has the world's highest ...

) and an art gallery, Pinacoteca Eduardo Úrculo. The International Tales Competition is one of the most important in the

Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

. Today, it shelters the center of new companies and technologies Valnalón and the Museum of the Siderurgy.

Industrial Heritage site

Important buildings are the church of San Pedro, the chapel El Llungéru, the former iron works factory Duro Felguera, engineers' houses in the street Conde Sizzo, former La Salle trade school, the engineers' chalet, Pedro Duro's statue, the Urquijo neighborhood, railway station, the former Nitrastur factory, the market and three parks (Dolores Duro, Sutu and García Lago).

Gallery

File:Kiosko La Felguera.jpg, Dolores Duro park File:Fábrica La Felguera-Langreo.jpg, Former La Felguera steelworks factory File:MUSI Felguera Langreo.jpg, Industry museum File:San pedro de la felguera.jpg, San Pedro church File:Rio nalon.JPG, Nalón river path File:Pozo Candín La Felguera Langreo.jpg, Candin former coal mine

References

External links

Villa de La Felguera
{{Authority control Parishes in Langreo Langreo