Oviedo's old town

There's a moment, mid-morning, when the sun slants down the streets of Oviedo's old town and everything seems to pause: the stone arcades, the echo of your own footsteps on the cobbles, the smell of coffee drifting out of a café that has been there forever. The old town isn't a backdrop to be ticked off in a hurry; it's a place to inhabit slowly, and anyone staying here understands that within minutes of setting down their suitcase.

The heart of the city: the cathedral and its square

Everything begins and ends at the Catedral de San Salvador, whose single Gothic tower is visible from half the city and works as a compass whenever you lose your bearings among the side streets. The Plaza de la Catedral is wide and calm, with that serene gravity of squares that have been meeting points for centuries. The Cámara Santa and the cloister are well worth stepping inside for, but so is simply sitting opposite and watching the façade as the afternoon fades.

A few metres away stands the statue of La Regenta, Clarín's heroine, planted in front of the cathedral as if she were taking in exactly the same scene as you. It's one of those quiet nods Oviedo scatters around its corners: a city that reads itself aloud in stone and bronze.

Streets and squares made for wandering

The old town is best explored without a map. These are the stops that seem to find you on their own:

• La Plaza del Fontán, with its arcades and its market. Stalls fill the square on Sundays and Thursdays, and any day of the week you'll find a couple of sidrerías where the waiter pours the cider from on high without once looking at the glass.
• Calle Cimadevilla, the shopping street it has always been, running down towards the town hall square and its archway.
• La Plaza de Trascorrales, intimate and tucked away, with its sculptures of market women and the feeling that you've wandered into a private courtyard.
• La Plaza de la Constitución, presided over by the town hall and the church of San Isidoro, the natural starting point for the walk down to El Fontán.

Threaded between them are short stone streets lined with bookshops, chocolatiers, craft workshops and bars where the pre-lunch vermouth is something close to a ritual. Nothing is far: within a ten-minute walk you'll find almost everything that matters.

The sculptures and Woody Allen's Oviedo

Oviedo is an open-air gallery of sculpture, and the old town holds several of the pieces that made it famous. Woody Allen, who filmed part of Vicky Cristina Barcelona here and received the Premio Príncipe de Asturias (Prince of Asturias Award), has his own statue strolling along Calle Milicias Nacionales, just steps from the old quarter. Hunting down the sculptures scattered across the centre —Botero's generous bronze backside included— is the perfect excuse to walk with no particular destination and stumble upon corners you'd otherwise walk straight past.

The atmosphere: cider, chigres (cider taverns) and neighbourhood life

As evening falls, Gascona, right on the edge of the old town, fills up. This is the cider boulevard: one sidrería after another, tables spilling into the street and the unmistakable sound of the culín splashing into the glass from above. There's nothing staged about it; this is simply the Asturian way of closing the day, and sitting down here to share a bottle with a good Cabrales cheese will teach you more about the city than any museum.

What sets Oviedo's old town apart is how effortlessly local life and visitors share the same streets. At nine in the morning you'll see the regulars heading to the market; at nine at night, the terraces are still full of people from the neighbourhood. There's a gentle calm here, without the exhausting bustle of other historic centres.

Why stay nearby

Sleeping in the old town, or a step away from it, changes the whole experience. It means walking out of your door and already being exactly where you want to be: the cathedral around the corner, El Fontán for breakfast, Gascona for dinner, everything within strolling distance, no cars, no timetables. It means coming back mid-afternoon for a rest and heading out again without a second thought about parking or transport.

At Maik Homes we've designed our apartments for precisely that: calm, carefully considered spaces with the comfort of your own home and the location of someone who knows the city. If you're coming to Oviedo to discover its old town at your own pace, we'd love to be your starting point. Book with us and let the city begin the moment you open the door.