The town of Somao, in Pravia, has been awarded the Exemplary Town of Asturias Award 2020 for having known how to maintain the wealth of its Indian and rural heritage legacy through close ties of neighborhood collaboration “in a convinced and exemplary commitment to the union of tradition and modernity “.
The minutes of the jury, which held its meeting electronically, also highlights the willingness to dialogue and understanding shown by its inhabitants in recent years in favor of the common good as well as the strong entrepreneurial spirit of its young people.
In addition, it affects your capacity of management and organization of the goods of the “rural parish”, made up of mountains and pastures -whose income redound to the benefit of the people-, which has contributed “to improving economic activity through the agri-food sector and tourism and to consolidate its solid commitment to the future.”
Somao, with some 300 inhabitants, is one of the 39 rural parishes in Asturias with their own legal personality and the ability to manage and organize their assets, which include some 400 hectares of forest and various pastures, an important source of income for the town as well as others from the rental of several houses and the management of the social center bar.
The parish was governed between 2015 and 2019 by a manager without a political sign, formed after the resignation of the previous mayor to preserve their legal status and prevent their assets from becoming the property of the Pravia City Council and, after the 2019 municipal elections, the elected board is made up of the members of the previous manager.
Its history is linked to the history of emigration and has an architectural heritage of Indian origin of notable value like the palaces of that time -some of them the work of the architect Manuel del Busto-, and it also benefited from the investments of those returned emigrants in bringing water, roads and fountains or in building schools (1925), cinema charity school (1920) and the church (1903), in addition to the local park.
That Indian legacy coexists with the typical Asturian constructions like barns, bread baskets and haystacks, being the quintana or casería the type of construction that shows an agrarian past linked to the exploitation of the field and livestock.
Nowadays the neighbors organize several popular meetings, both for the performance of altruistic works such as the restoration of the church and laundry rooms and the cleaning of fountains and drinking fountains, as well as for the maintenance of traditions such as Christmas, carnival, the bonfire of San Juan and the amagüestu, in addition to the patron saint festivities in honor of Sant’Olaina, which are held on December 10 and the last weekend of August.
In 2007 the Friends of Somao Cultural Association was born, formed by a group of neighbors united by their love of knitting, gathering and cross stitching, while groups such as the Santa Eulalia Choir or the Group of Salt Carpets and Floral Ornaments, energize the life of the town.
The library, reopened in 2017, remains open thanks to neighborhood volunteering, which orders and manages a catalog of books where Indian heritage encyclopedias are mixed with donations from neighbors and, taking advantage of this reopening, Somao Book Week was launched.
The parish has taken advantage of new technologies as a meeting point for its neighbors and a documentary archive of its history and heritage and, in the economic sphere, it maintains the business activity of long-lived firms, such as the oldest in town, the Afuega’l Pitu La Peñona cheese factory, along with other businesses that have passed from father to son.
Furthermore, the eentrepreneurial spirit of the village youth has helped the proliferation of rural houses and hotel establishments that have contributed to revitalizing tourism in the area.
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