Capilla de Santa Marina de Piñera
Few travellers who speed along the N-634 between Navia and Luarca ever notice the sign for Piñera, yet this tiny rural hamlet contains one of the most charming pre-Romanesque chapels in western Asturias — a small, perfectly proportioned stone church surrounded by nothing but cattle pasture and apple orchards. It is almost always completely empty of tourists.
The Chapel Itself
Santa Marina de Piñera dates to the early medieval period and retains its original single-nave layout, a corbelled stone roof and a simple carved tympanum above the entrance that art historians link to 11th-century Asturian workshop traditions.
The churchyard contains a handful of ancient grave markers half-swallowed by grass, and the whole ensemble — chapel, cemetery, enclosing wall — sits in a hollow of the hill that feels entirely untouched by the 21st century.
Finding It and Combining the Visit
Take the local road toward Piñera village from the N-634 roughly 5 km east of Navia; the chapel is signposted from the village square and reached on foot in under five minutes along a farm track.
Pair the visit with a walk through the surrounding bocage landscape — the network of lanes between Piñera and the hamlet of Arancedo (home to the famous 800-year-old chestnut tree, El Carballo de Arancedo) makes a rewarding 6 km rural loop.
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