Asturias has two landscapes, and one of them is underground. The limestone that shapes its mountains and cliffs is riddled with caves, and on the walls of some of them are paintings left by hunter-gatherers more than 30,000 years ago.
This guide covers which caves you can visit and which you can’t, what each one holds and how to fit them into a trip. First, the five that are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Then the natural caves you can explore without booking. And finally, when to go, how to book and what to bring.
Why Asturias has so many caves
It comes down to the rock. Much of the region, especially the east and the Picos de Europa, is limestone, a stone that slightly acidic rainwater slowly dissolves. Over hundreds of thousands of years that water has carved out cracks, passages, shafts and entire chambers.
Geologists call this a karst landscape. On the surface you spot it in the closed valleys, the sinkholes and the rivers that suddenly vanish underground. Below it, in the stalactites and stalagmites that grow drop by drop from the calcite the water leaves behind.
Then there’s the human story. During the last Ice Age, the Cantabrian coast was one of the most liveable places in Europe, and the mouths of these caves gave people shelter. That’s why Asturias, together with Cantabria and the Basque Country, holds one of the most important collections of Palaeolithic art in the world.
Cave art in Asturias: the five UNESCO World Heritage caves
In July 2008, UNESCO extended its listing of the Altamira cave to create the “Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain”. It covers 18 caves in total, five of them in Asturias: Tito Bustillo, El Pindal, La Peña de Candamo, La Covaciella and Llonín, according to the official UNESCO list.
All of them date from the Upper Palaeolithic, when modern humans had already settled in Europe. The oldest paintings and engravings in the region belong to the Gravettian, more than 26,000 years ago, while most are Magdalenian, between 20,000 and 12,000 years old.
The subjects barely change, and that tells you a lot: red deer, horses, bison, ibex, the odd mammoth and signs we still can’t read. These were the animals people hunted and lived alongside.
Tito Bustillo Cave (Ribadesella)
The best known and the easiest to visit. It was discovered in April 1968 by a group of young cavers who abseiled down a shaft more than 100 metres deep. It’s named after one of them, Celestino Fernández Bustillo, who died in a mountain accident nineteen days later.
The cave runs for about 700 metres and holds a dozen groups of paintings. Only one is open to visitors, the Main Panel, with nearly a hundred figures: red deer, horses, reindeer, ibex, bison and an aurochs, painted one over another across thousands of years. The oldest figures in the cave are more than 30,000 years old; most of the panel is Magdalenian.
Another famous section, the Chamber of the Vulvas, is kept off the route to protect it. To see it, and to make sense of the cave before you go in, there’s the Tito Bustillo Rock Art Centre at the entrance.
The cave tour lasts an hour, with groups of 15 and 150 places a day. It opens from March to October, Wednesday to Sunday, for ages 7 and up. Summer slots sell out, so book on the centre’s website weeks ahead. Inside it’s around 13 °Cand the floor is damp.
El Pindal Cave (Pimiango, Ribadedeva)
Right at the eastern edge of Asturias, almost on the border with Cantabria, and with one of the most striking entrances you’ll ever see: an opening in a cliff a few metres from the sea, next to Cape San Emeterio.
The passage is about 600 metres long and the visit covers the first 300. On the walls are red deer, bison, horses, a fish and one of the few mammoths in Iberian cave art, painted between 18,000 and 13,000 years ago.
You book by phone, the minimum age is again 7, and a standard ticket costs around €3. Next to it is the San Emeterio and El Pindal Cave Interpretation Centre, which helps put what you see into context.
La Peña de Candamo Cave (San Román de Candamo)
Candamo was discovered in 1914 and was one of the first decorated caves in Asturias to be studied. It’s small, about 70 metres long, but it holds a curious record: it’s the westernmost cave with Palaeolithic art in Europe.
Its engravings and paintings span from the Gravettian to the late Magdalenian. The 20th century wasn’t kind to it, between unsupervised visits, its use as a shelter in the Civil War and some unfortunate restoration work, and it was closed for many years.
Today it opens only in summer and at Easter, with 45 places a day in groups of 15 and compulsory online booking. Before going in you stop at the Interpretation Centre in the Valdés-Bazán palace in San Román, which has life-size replicas of the cave walls.
La Covaciella and Llonín: the ones you can’t visit
La Covaciella turned up by chance in October 1994, when roadworks on the AS-114 at Las Estazadas (Cabrales) opened a hole that had been sealed for thousands of years. Inside was the finest collection of bison in Asturias, Magdalenian and superbly preserved.
Precisely to keep it that way, the cave is closed. What you can visit is its interpretation room at Casa Bárcena, in Carreña de Cabrales.
Llonín, in Peñamellera Alta, was used to mature Cabrales cheese until its paintings, some thirty animal figures, were identified in 1971. It isn’t open to the public either; some of its finds are on display at the Archaeological Museum of Asturias in Oviedo.
El Sidrón, the Neanderthal cave
It has no paintings, but no look at the prehistoric caves of Asturias is complete without it. In 1994, El Sidrón, in Piloña, yielded the remains of at least 13 Neanderthals, around 49,000 years old.
It’s one of the sites that has taught us most about how Neanderthals lived, fell ill and ate. The cave is not open to visitors.
Natural caves you can explore without booking
Not every cave in Asturias is about rock art. Some are worth visiting for what the rock itself has done, and a few you can simply walk into.
La Cuevona de Cueves (Cuevas del Agua)
The village of Cueves, also known as Cuevas del Agua, lies in the municipality of Ribadesella, about 7 kilometres from the town, and to get there you have to go through a cave.
The road literally disappears into the mountain and runs for about 300 metres underground, past stalactites and flowstones the locals have given names to, such as the Devil’s Tongue and St James’s Beard. Only residents can drive through, so you visit on foot, and it’s free.
La Cuevona de Ardines (Ribadesella)
It sits right next to Tito Bustillo, in the same rock mass, although the two caves aren’t connected. Its main chamber is round, about 80 metres across, with an opening in the roof that lets daylight in from some 70 metres above.
It also has Palaeolithic art, but not in the section you can visit. What you see is the chamber and its formations, and unlike the painted caves, it’s open all year round.
La Cuevona de Avín and the Ice Age Fauna Museum (Onís)
In Avín, beside the AS-114, the River Chicu runs through a cave that sheltered people in the Palaeolithic and, in the 18th and 19th centuries, served as a coaching inn with a forge.
Today it houses the Picos de Europa Ice Age Fauna Museum, with life-size models of a mammoth, a giant deer and a woolly rhinoceros, plus real rhino fossils found in a nearby cave. It’s the ideal stop to see the animals the Palaeolithic artists were painting. In summer it opens daily; the rest of the year, by appointment.
Cueva Huerta (Teverga)
This is the big one for anyone who wants more than to look: about 14 kilometres of passages, the second-longest system in the region, and a Natural Monument since 2002. It’s also home to one of the most important bat colonies in northern Spain.
There’s a family visit of about 50 minutes and an adventure route of around three hours that follows the underground river with a guide, abseils and tight squeezes.
Planning your visit to the caves of Asturias
When to go
The caves with original paintings are seasonal. Tito Bustillo opens from March to October and Candamo only in summer and at Easter. In winter, the plan is to pair the interpretation centres with the natural caves, most of which stay open.
The best time is spring and September: there are places available, the weather plays along and the countryside around Ribadesella and Llanes is free of crowds.
Bookings and visitor limits
For original rock art, always book. Numbers are kept very small because visitors’ breath and body heat alter the cave climate that has preserved the paintings for millennia. Tito Bustillo is booked online or at the ticket office, El Pindal by phone and Candamo online.
Prices are almost symbolic, around €3–4 for a standard ticket, and the minimum age at all three is 7.
What to bring
A warm layer and shoes with good grip. These caves stay at around 12–13 °C all year and the floor is usually wet. Photography isn’t allowed in the painted caves.
A one-day route in eastern Asturias
If you only have a day, base yourself in Ribadesella. In the morning, Tito Bustillo and its rock art centre; then La Cuevona de Ardines next door, and in the afternoon the underground walk to Cueves. With a second day, El Pindal and the Ribadedeva coastline round off the trip by the sea.
Frequently asked questions about the caves of Asturias
What is the most famous cave in Asturias?
Tito Bustillo, in Ribadesella. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008, and its Main Panel brings together nearly a hundred figures of red deer, horses, reindeer and bison. It opens from March to October, with booking required and groups of 15.
Which caves in Asturias have cave paintings?
The five UNESCO World Heritage caves: Tito Bustillo, El Pindal, La Peña de Candamo, La Covaciella and Llonín. The first three can be visited with a booking; La Covaciella and Llonín are closed to the public to protect them.
Can you visit the caves of Asturias in winter?
The natural caves, such as La Cuevona de Ardines, yes. The caves with original rock art are seasonal: Tito Bustillo closes from November to February and Candamo only opens in summer and at Easter. In winter, check each cave before you go.
Can children visit the painted caves?
From age 7 at Tito Bustillo, El Pindal and Candamo. For younger children, the natural caves and the Ice Age Fauna Museum in Avín are a better bet, with life-size animals to look at.
Do you need to book Tito Bustillo?
Yes. There are 150 places a day in groups of 15, and in summer they sell out weeks in advance. Book on the centre’s website or at the ticket office, and arrive half an hour before your slot.
And if your trip takes you to the Mediterranean
The caves of Asturias tell the story of the people who lived in them. On the east coast of Mallorca, the same slow work of water on limestone has created something else: an underground world you can visit at a steady 20 °C all year round.
At the Cuevas dels Hams, in Porto Cristo, the visit takes in three caves in an hour. It starts in the Cueva Redonda, a garden open to the sky, continues through the Cueva Azul and ends in the Cueva Clásica, with the underground lake Mar de Venecia and its musical show.
In the Sueño de un Ángel chamber you’ll find the “hams”, the fish hooks that give the cave its name: delicate formations that grow downwards, curve and then turn back up. And if you’re curious how karst changes from one coast to another, take a look at our guide to the caves and karst of Murcia.
Choose your time slot at tickets.cuevasdelshams.com and check opening days on the dates and opening times calendar.